Within the past week, more than 650 whales became stranded on Farewell Spit, at the northern tip of South Island. It was one of the country’s largest pilot whale strandings ever. “No whales have stranded overnight,” Project Jonah, a conservation group helping to coordinate the rescue, said in a Facebook post early Tuesday. Whale strandings at Farewell Spit occur most years, but the high number of whales trapped this year surprised officials. “Whales can become agitated when stressed and can injure or even kill a human with a small flick of a whale fin or tail,” the department warned on its website.

Source: New York Times February 14, 2017 00:00 UTC