Scores of pilot whales dead in NZ stranding

Almost 100 pilot whales have died in a mass stranding on New Zealand's remote Chatham Islands, conservation officials said yesterday. Most of the marine mammals beached themselves over the weekend but rescue efforts were hampered by the area's isolated location, about 800 kilometres east of the South Island. The Chatham Islands was the site of New Zealand's largest recorded mass stranding, when 1,000 beached themselves in 1918.