Source: Aljazeera
New group of 240 whales become beached in biggest stranding on record as volunteers struggle to return animals to sea.
![New Zealand has one of the highest rates of whale strandings in the world [EPA]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2017/2/11/3b2ec5af99844e86b9badf0d235cef6a_18.jpg?w=667 "South Island: More whales stranded as hundreds die")
The fight to save scores of beached whales in one of New Zealand’s biggest whale strandings on record was far from over as more of the animals washed up on the coast.
A new pod of 240 whales became beached on Saturday just hours after volunteers managed to refloat a different group following an earlier mass stranding.
Saturday’s group brought to more than 650 the total number of pilot whales that have swum ashore along the 23-km Farewell Split since Thursday.
About 335 whales have died on South Island’s sands, 220 remain stranded and 100 were sent back to sea by volunteer rescuers.
Categories: Nature & Wild Life, New Zealand, The Muslim Times