Hundreds of whales dead after mass stranding in New Zealand

Hundreds of whales have died overnight in a mass stranding in New Zealand thought to be the largest in decades.

Some 416 pilot whales were stranded at Farewell Spit in the Golden Bay region at the northern tip of South Island. Authorities say about 70 percent of the whales were perished. An urgent plea has been issued for locals to drop work and school commitments and head to the remote beach to save the surviving whales. Pilot whales are known for tragically swimming back ashore after being refloated in an apparent attempt to rejoin their pod. The biggest whale stranding in New Zealand occurred when one-thousand whales beached at the remote Chatham Islands in 1918, followed by 450 that washed ashore in Auckland in 1985.