'Worst night of my life'
A TRAVEL blogger who made desperate efforts to save almost 150 whales stranded on a remote Stewart Island beach said it was the ‘‘worst night of my entire life’’.
Liz Carlson, who lives in Wanaka and writes a travel blog called Young Adventuress, was 50km into a fiveday tramp on Saturday when she and her group came across the pilot whales stranded on Mason Bay on the west coast of the island.
What followed was the ‘‘worst night’’ of her life, she said on Instagram.
When they realised the ‘‘horror’’ of the scene they encountered they ran to the water and attempted to save the whales.
They desperately grabbed the whales’ tails before getting ‘‘hammered by them thrashing around’’.
‘‘It was useless — they were so big and heavy and the realisation we could do nothing to save them was the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced.
‘‘We were in a place with no people, no service, no help.’’
Seeing and hearing the whales while not being able to do anything to save them was heartbreaking, she said.
‘‘I’ll never forget their cries, the way they watched me as I sat with them in the water, how they desperately tried to swim but their weight only dug them deeper into the sands.’’
She said one of the group was able to contact the Department of Conservation after running 15km back to the base hut.
And while saving the whales would have been impossible, getting the message to Doc spared the whales more misery as they were euthanised shortly afterwards.
‘‘Otherwise it would have likely been days before anyone even knew the whales were there and a very long, painful, slow death for them all.’’
She said she would ‘‘never be the same’’ after seeing the whales.
Doc Rakiura operations manager Ren Leppens said about half the whales had died by the time they were discovered, and the remaining whales had to be euthanised.
‘‘Sadly, the likelihood of being able to successfully refloat the remaining whales was extremely low. The remote location, lack of nearby personnel and the whales’ deteriorating condition meant the most humane thing to do was to euthanise.’’
Te Runanga o Awarua chairman Dean Whaanga said a rahui (restriction) would be placed over the whales.
‘‘The intention of a rahui is to deter people from going near the whales as they decompose, primarily for their own safety.’’
AUCKLAND: A ranger who helped to save six pygmy killer whales is both devastated and relieved with the lengthy rescue efforts.
Twelve mammals washed up on 90 Mile Beach two days ago but four died before they could be refloated.
The Department of Conservation and 300 volunteers worked to refloat the remaining eight, but two came back to shore in bad health and both had to be euthanised.
Doc community ranger Jamie Werner said the last couple of days had been intense.
‘‘I’m devastated, I’m overwhelmed, I’m exhausted, I’m happy.’’
Refloating efforts began about 9.30am yesterday.
Two whales were taken out to sea on pontoons towed by inflatable rescue boats and the rest were given time to readjust to the water in the waves.
But two of the weakest whales rebeached three times, which caused the rest of the pod to stick close to the shore.
‘‘They are that well in tune with each other, that they all tend to come back to their weakest ones.’’
There was a real fear the rest would beach themselves again, he said.
After the tough decision was made to euthanise the two beached whales, the rest of the pod turned back towards the open sea.
‘‘It’s just like whanau — they always look after their weak.’’
Mr Werner said it was ‘‘mindblowing’’ how many people from the local community, iwi, schools and organisations turned up to help out with the rescue.
‘‘We have done everything we can humanely possible, within our limitations and now it’s up to the whales.’’
He said its unsurprising that people wanted to help whales.
‘‘They have that connection.’’
‘‘Here in the Far North, it’s expected, we are just surrounded by amazing people and this reiterates that,’’ Mr Werner said. — RNZ