More than 200 whales swim away after New Zealand stranding

About 350 died, including 20 that were euthanized.

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — Whale lovers in New Zealand finally got some good news on Sunday after more than 200 stranded whales managed to refloat themselves overnight and swim away, while volunteers managed to save another 17 whales at high tide.

More than 650 pilot whales had beached themselves along Farewell Spit at the tip of the South Island in two separate mass strandings over recent days. About 350 whales have died, including 20 that were euthanized. Another 100 have been refloated by volunteers and more than 200 have swum away unassisted.

Hundreds of volunteers from farmers to tourists have spent days at the beach dousing the whales with buckets of water to keep them cool and trying to refloat them.

“People seem to have an emotional attachment to marine mammals,” said Department of Conservation spokesman Herb Christophers. “They’ve been singing songs to them, giving them specific names, treating them as kindred spirits.”

Christophers said everyone is hoping the strandings are finally over, although he said it’s possible some of the whales will return to the beach and strand themselves again.

The first group of more than 400 beached whales was found early Friday, with many of them already dead.

“You could hear the sounds of splashing, of blowholes being cleared, of sighing,” said Cheree Morrison, a magazine writer and editor who first stumbled upon the whales. “The young ones were the worst. Crying is the only way to describe it.”