© Newstalk ZB
Ten of the whales which stranded at Golden Bay have died.
The Department of Conservation received a call from a member of the public about 82 pilot whales stranding at Puponga Point at around 1pm this afternoon.
Around 100 volunteers are at Puponga Point trying to keep the remaining 72 wet, however they will knock off at around half past eight as it's too dangerous in the dark.
DOC spokeswoman Trish Grant says the next high tide isn't until 11:30pm tonight so another attempt at re-floating the whales won't be able to take place until the morning.
"Initially there were about 30 stranded and about 50 DOC staff with volunteer help tried to get those that were still floating back out to sea but unfortunately they weren't able to do that with the tide," she told Newstalk ZB.
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...to the recent 4.5mag earthquake which hit the Southern Island dead centre within hours of the stranding. Thus I would suggest that it is the magnetic field activity associated with the earthquake which has caused the strandings, due to throwing off the magnetic field guidance systems of the whales.
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