Up to 145 whales die in mass stranding incident in New Zealand

Up to 145 pilot whales have died after becoming stranded on a beach in New Zealand, the country's government said Monday.The Conservation Department said two separate pods of whales were found on Saturday at a beach on Stewart Island, a remote islet 30 kilometers south of South Island.Half of the whales had already died by the time officials reached the beach and Conservation Department staff chose to euthanize the remaining mammals due to their poor condition and the remote location."Sadly, the likelihood of being able to successfully re-float the remaining whales was extremely low," said …READ FULL ARTICLE