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Whales stranded on Northland's Karikari Beach - Source: ONE News -
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Seven pilot whales from a pod of 58 stranded on a remote Northland beach on Friday night have made it out to sea in good health.
Thirteen whales were refloated this afternoon after being moved from Karikari Beach to Maitai Beach by trailer.
The other six survivors are experiencing difficulties and Department of Conservation staff are concerned because they haven't left the immediate area where they were released.
They are being closely monitored.
The whales were caught up in a mass stranding and 43 were found dead along the beach with another two dying despite the rescue attempts.
Hundreds of locals stayed up overnight to give the surviving whales a chance of survival after the pod of 58 washed up. The task of keeping the whales alive lasted more than 24 hours.
Rescuer Kim Kingi told ONE News hundreds of locals put in the hard yards all through the night and just wanted them to make it through.
But it was too late for most of the whales and Wendy Sporle from the Far North Whale Rescue team said the dead whales were separated from the ones that still had a chance to ensure helpers only focused on the live whales.
"What we found up the beach was a jumble of dead whales up the beach with live whales in between them so we had to identify the live whales by putting flagging tape on them," she said.
Sporle said it was also important to look after the people as well as the whales.
"It was very, very dangerous for the people with whales parallel to the surf thrashing around and the risk of people getting tangled under dead ones.
"It's really dangerous in the night when it's cold, you've got people passionate about the whales but not wanting to leave them and you've got the surf to consider," Sporle said.
Department of Conservation spokeswoman Carolyn Smith was overwhelmed at the effort people made to get the whales back out to sea.
She said they were in the water all day helping.
A DOC boat will monitor the whales to make sure they don't come back in shore.
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