According to conservation official Dave Lundquist, a technical team visited the site on Monday to assess the situation. In light of the condition of the animals, experts decided to end the suffering of the individuals who are still alive, MTI reports.
Pete Island is an area isolated from the outside world, where few people live. Lundquist noted that great white sharks, which are dangerous to both humans and animals, breed in nearby waters, so there is no way to rescue stranded cetaceans.
Darren Grover, an employee of an organization called Project Jonah, noted that there weren’t enough people to guide the glass-nosed dolphins into the water. The rich marine life in the area is attractive to cetaceans, he said. The Chatham Islands consist of the Pete and Chatham Islands and are located 840 kilometers east of New Zealand’s South Island. Eight hundred people live on the larger island of Chatham, and only forty of them live on the island of Pitt.
On Saturday, 215 bottlenose dolphins died on Chatham Island, which is located just forty kilometers to the north. The animals that were found alive were shot by the guards to save them from further suffering. Similar cases are not uncommon in the Chatham Islands. In 1918, more than a thousand animals stuck on these beaches died.
Dolphins are very social creatures. In mass delinquency, it often happens that survivors swim back to find their mates. This behavior makes successful rescue more difficult.
