41 Beached Whales Shot in New Zealand

[donsu]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060102/ap_on_sc/new_zealand_whale_stranding;_ylt=AgfGIjX.eVOQRRvSbeMQDuOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-


Wildlife officers shot 41 pilot whales that beached on New Zealand's South Island, the Department of Conservation said.

A total of 49 whales came ashore Saturday near Farewell Spit in the second major stranding in the area within two weeks. Eight died on the beaches, and the remaining animals were shot when heavy seas prevented any attempt to refloat them.

"Given the hopelessness of being able to successfully refloat the whales, our prime concern was then to avoid the whales' suffering a long and painful death," Greg Napp, the department's Golden Bay area officer, said in a statement.

Napp said the latest stranding was likely unconnected to another last month when 129 pilot whales came ashore close by.
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oh sadness

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Do they give a reason for the beachings.... this is so unbelievably

terrible.... unreal... some of the world's best, most intelligent creatures.... what a crying shame.

[Der Blaue Engel]

3. If I were a whale

I think I'd be seriously considering beaching myself right now. In my more esoteric moments, I imagine that the whales can feel the sickness in the Earth that is our government (among other things), and are filled with despair. But then I realize how fruitloopy that sounds and I shut up. ;)

[donsu]

4. the writer Christine Brooke-Rose in her novel Amalgamemnon said

this:

", a heavy whale panting leglessly on a distant shore to give birth to a small profoetus in a flapping of fins before the final gasp. The ecozoologists will then fly in from all over the world and poke its entrails and fraudcast a stooging diregnosis and we'll all go on as if."

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Collapsing immune systems.... toxicity, falling prey to simple virus

and bacteria..... I would imagine....

[CrispyQ]

2. It's time

for that alien species from that Star Trek whale movie to come to Earth & help the planet's creatures by eradicating the most vile species that exists.


This story is so tragic.

[flvegan]

6. Maybe they just thought it would be better than a Japanese harpoon

I mean, they are whaling in the Antarctic right now. Maybe a beaching is less painful than an exploding harpoon from an illegal whaling expedition...

At least the meat isn't on the menu for a bunch of arrogant fucks to partake in.