198 Whales Swim Ashore In New Zealand

No, they weren't coming ashore to take the Hobbiton tour. On New Zealand's South Island on Friday, nearly 200 pilot whales beached themselves – most likely on accident. Scientists are speculating that these whales may have been in an area where their built-in sonar abilities were messed with, leading them to swim up and over the area they'd normally be comfortable in. These whales can't, after all, survive on the shore for extended periods of time. They breath oxygen, but they still need to be wet.

These weren't the sort of whales you think of when you're out on a sea liner watching the orcas blow water at your face. They were pilot whales – relatively small – closer in size to a dolphin than a killer whale.

Once it was discovered that these whales had beached themselves, "hordes of rescuers," according to Al Jazeera, rushed to shore to attempt a mass rescue. The beaching of these whales occurred at high tide, which meant that if the rescue soon after had failed, there'd be a whole lot of dead whale ashore.

As it turns out, around 24 whales did not end up surviving. Most of the whales that'd come ashore were successfully returned to the sea.

"Re-floating stranded whales," said Department of Conservation (DOC) spokesperson Andrew Lamason, "is a difficult and potentially dangerous job."

"Community group Project Jonah has 140 volunteers in the Golden Bay area who are trained to do this, and we're working alongside them."

While beachings of whales is not unheard of in the area, this is the largest beaching in many years.

While the prevailing theory is that areas such as nearby Farewell Spit are responsible for the whales sonar being messed with, some far more "awww-inspiring" notions do exist. One other theory is that after one "sick or disoriented" whale beaches itself on accident, healthy whales will beach themselves as well to attempt to help.