Colville Community thanked for Whale strand effort

Coromandel Department of Conservation staff were relieved to wake this morning with no sign of a repeat of yesterday's pilot whale stranding at Colville Bay.

DOC staff worked with locals and Project Jonah volunteers for 11 hours yesterday to successfully refloat 42 of the 63 pilot whales that had stranded in the early hours of the morning.

Acting Area Manager, Andrew Baucke credited the successful refloating to the efforts of locals, holiday makers and Project Jonah volunteers combined with the expertise of DOC staff who were called in from their holidays to manage the stranding.

“We really appreciated the huge response and co-operation from locals, iwi, the volunteer Fire Service, Police, Harbourmaster, Project Jonah and the digger contractors. They were led by my Programme Manager, Steve Bolton whose leadership and direction kept people safe and ensured a co-ordinated effort. A positive outcome like this can only be achieved by everyone working together, and I'd like to thank all of those involved”.

DOC staff and volunteers, kept the whales cool and protected from the sun until they could be refloated on the high tide. As the tide came in, the whales were helped and held into position until they could orient themselves and start swimming. Whilst 20 whales could not be saved, the birth of two calves soon after the pod was refloated tempered the loss.

The refloated whales were last seen at 9.30pm last night at the northern tip of the coromandel peninsula, swimming strongly and heading toward Hauturu (Little Barrier Island).

The dead whales were secured at the edge of the bay and watched over by iwi last night until they could be buried at low tide this morning.