Holes cut in 300 whale carcasses
Print Edition
NEW Zealand authorities were cutting holes in 300 whale carcasses yesterday, popping the dead animals “like balloons”, to avoid them exploding as they decompose on Golden Bay after over 600 whales became stranded.
Hundreds of rescuers managed to save around 400 pilot whales on the South Island beach on the weekend after one of New Zealand’s largest whale strandings.
But hundreds of whales died on the beach and the Department of Conservation cordoned off the bodies and urged the public to call them if they found whale carcasses that had floated off the beach and washed up on nearby shores.
“The area is currently closed to the public because of the risk from whales exploding,” the department said in a statement.
Workers in protective clothing would spend the day cutting holes in the whale carcasses, “like popping balloons” with knives and 2-meter needles, to release internal gases that build up pressure, a department spokesman told local radio.
It would take several months for the bodies to decompose and turn into skeletons.
The surviving whales were last seen swimming six kilometers offshore on Sunday evening, the department said.
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