‘Incredible’ New Zealand community unites to save 30 stranded pilot whales on Ruakaka Beach

New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot, and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders.

A team was monitoring Ruakaka Beach near the city of Whangarei in New Zealand’s north on Monday to ensure there were no signs of the whales saved Sunday stranding again, the Department of Conservation said. The agency praised as “incredible” the efforts made by hundreds of people to help save the foundering pod.

“It’s amazing to witness the genuine care and compassion people have shown toward these magnificent animals,” Joel Lauterbach, a Department of Conservation spokesman, said in a statement. “This response demonstrates the deep connection we all share with our marine environment.”

A Māori cultural ceremony for the three adult whales and one calf that died in the stranding took place on Monday. New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga – a sacred treasure – of cultural significance.

New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840. The largest pilot whale stranding was of an estimated 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918, according to the Department of Conservation.