MARTY MELVILLE/AFP/Getty Images(WELLINGTON, New Zealand) — As rescuers worked to help hundreds of beached whales back to sea in New Zealand, over 200 more arrived on Saturday.
On Thursday, a group of 416 whales came ashore on Farewell Spit at the top of South Island, and more than 300 of those pilot whales have died, according to BBC.
Volunteers were able to refloat about 100 of the whales on Saturday, but hundreds more made landfall the same day, BBC reports. The rescue workers are trying to keep the whales alive by cooling them with water and keeping them upright.
Rochelle Constantine, a marine biologist at the University of Auckland, told Television New Zealand (TVNZ) it is the third largest mass stranding ever recorded in the country’s history.
It is not yet clear what caused the mass stranding, but one theory suggests sharks are driving the whales to land, according to BBC.
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