Stranding No.3...

People-power came to the rescue again yesterday, when residents of a tiny Banks Peninsula settlement saved the majority of a pod of pilot whales beached in a mass stranding.
Port Levy residents and holidaymakers worked in cold water and mud for four hours, to refloat 60 whales aground on the foreshore. Fifteen females and calves died, but the rescuers managed to refloat and save about 50 whales.
There were two or three people per whale, bathing them in water until high tide, when they were able to refloat them.
Department of Conservation says it's difficult to know exactly what attracted the whales into the bay, but they were probably chasing squid. The bay's shallow sandy bottom meant the whales' sonar did not work well. Sadly, pilot whale strandings are a regular occurrence in New Zealand and the one in Port Levy is our third this year. But it's uncommon for Banks Peninsula...