36 whales die after stranding in New Zealand

January 24, 2012

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-01-23/New-Zealand-whale-stranding/52762286/1

John Mason, manager of the Department of Conservation said that 99 pilot whales were stranded on Monday on Farewell Spit on the South Island. By Tuesday, 36 of the whales had died and another 40 remained stranded and were in danger. The conservatory staff and the volunteers successfully refloated 17 of the whales, which swum to the deeper water. Six whales remained unaccounted for. The 40-beached whales were swimming in the shallow water on early Tuesday afternoon but became stranded again at night when the tide went out. The volunteers will try to keep the whales cool and wet until dark, and that all they could hope for was that the whales would swim away on the next hide tide during the night. Pilot whales are about 6 meter and regularly large numbers are stranded during the summer months in New Zealand. The beach is described by experts as a whale trap due to the way its shallow waters seem to confuse the whales making them unable to navigate.

This article interested me, because it is amazing that big animals such as whales can become so defenseless when they are taken out of the water. It is also impressive the fact that there are so many whales every year that are stranded in the beach, which means that every year a large amount of the whale population die. Volunteers and staff are trying to do everything that they can but it is not enough because of the size of the whales and that they come back to the shallow waters after they are put back in the sea, this is also impressive, because it is as if the whales come back to help the others. I think that I chose the article because it was a big shock to me, hearing that out of 99 whales, 36 had already died, which means that the population of the whales decreased again.

I don’t think that the article relates to my life in any aspect, I just think that the facts of realty, the fact that people in New Zealand have to deal with this every year is really amazing, because in Venezuela we never hear about so many animals stranded in the beach, you might hear about one or two sea dolphins stranded and they are small enough to be moved, but the whales are just so big that moving them is probably a big problem. The area of interaction that this article is related to is Environment, because it is something that is happening in our world, it is something that is happening in the environment of these animals. Environment is the one that fits the best with the article.