WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Conservation staff in New Zealand have put down 33 stranded whales after several attempts to refloat them failed. The pilot whales shot Thursday were the last of 99 that stranded themselves Monday on Farewell Spit on the South...

Volunteers were able to refloat, or guide them back out to sea on Wednesday. But they beached themselves again a day later and officials determined they had to be put down, according to television station TVNZ. Department of Conservation area manager...

By Monday evening, 22 of the pilot whales had died while 16 others managed to refloat and are believed to be safe. As of Wednesday morning, Mason said 35 of the whales remain stranded while a total of 48 others have died. Around 200 volunteers and DoC...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand Conservation staff in New Zealand have put down 33 stranded whales after several attempts to refloat them failed. The pilot whales shot Thursday were the last of 99 that stranded themselves Monday on Farewell Spit on the South...

"The Department of Conservation has decided they will have to be put down." John Mason, a Department of Conservation official, said the whales were physically deteriorating and in distress. The whales were part of a larger pod of 99 whales that beached...

"It has been absolutely incredible," British astronomer John Mason cried from the deck of the MS Midnatsol, a cruise ship plying the fjord-fringed coast of northern Norway. "I saw my first aurora 40 years ago, and this is one of the best," Mason told...