As many as 145 pilot whales have died after being found stranded on a remote beach in New Zealand, conservation officials said Monday.

Two pods of pilot whales were discovered just over a mile apart on Mason Bay, Stewart Island, a sparsely populated island in the country's south.

Conservation officers found half the whales dead when they reached the spot and decided to put down the rest as the chances of returning them to the water were very bleak due to the terrible condition they were in. "It's always a heart-breaking decision to make," Department of Conservation (DOC)'s Rakiura Operations Manager Ren Leppens stated while referring to their decision

The DOC stated that they handle at least 85 incidents of strandings a year which are caused by sickness, navigational error or a chasing predator, amongst other reasons. Last year, New Zealand reported its largest incident of whale strandings when 300 whales died on a beach in South Island.

(Fetaured image : VOA News)