(Tim Cuff/New Zealand Herald via AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — It was the sound of soft sighs and cries in the half-light that first struck Cheree Morrison, and then as the dawn broke she began to see the extent of the carnage — more than 400 whales had swum aground along a remote New Zealand beach. (Tim Cuff/New Zealand Herald via AP)

This handout from the New Zealand Department of Conservation taken and released on Feb. 10, 2017, shows pilot whales, which beached themselves overnight, at Farewell Spit in the Golden Bay region at the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island. More than 400 whales were stranded on a New Zealand beach Friday, with hundreds already dead as volunteers raced to refloat the survivors, the Department of Conservation said. Volunteer rescue group Project Jonah said a total of 416 whales had stranded and 75 percent were dead when they were discovered. The Department of Conservation, volunteer group Project Jonah and an increasing number of good Samaritans are focused on saving the remaining whales quickly before their health deteriorates. Volunteers are frantically trying to refloat the surviving whales but some are now swimming in the wrong direction and heading back into the bay, Department of Conservation spokesman Andrew Lamason told Radio New Zealand. Conservation workers said many of the surviving whales were likely to be in bad shape given the number of deaths, and that their conditions would likely deteriorate the longer they remained stranded. New Zealand has one of the highest rates of whale strandings in the world, and Friday’s event is the nation’s third-largest recorded stranding. The biggest occurred when 1,000 whales beached at the remote Chatham Islands in 1918, followed by 450 that washed ashore in Auckland in 1985.Pilot whales grow up to six meters (20 feet) long and are the most common species of whale in New Zealand waters. The largest occurred in 1918 when 1,000 whales became stranded on the shore of the Chatham Islands, with the 1985 stranding of 450 whales in Auckland following in second. The exact reason why this patch of sand continues to be an issue to the whales is unknown, but many believe the beach’s far-reaching coastline and gradually sloping sands make it hard for whales who get close to shore to maneuver out.
Volunteers are working to save the remaining live pilot whales beached at Farewell Spit on New Zealand's South Island. Project Jonah reports that 75 percent of the more than 400 stranded whales are dead.