▲紐西蘭自然保育部將145頭擱淺領航鯨就地安樂死。（圖／路透）
記者張方瑀／編譯
「我永遠不會忘記牠們在海灘上的哀鳴」，來自美國的旅遊部落客卡爾森（Liz Carlson）是第一位在紐西蘭南島南部海岸30公里的斯圖爾特島（Stewart Island），發現145頭領航鯨（pilot whale）擱淺的人，「最慘的是你無能為力。」
她告訴《英國廣播公司》（BBC），當時她與朋友正在斯圖爾特島（Stewart Island）健行，原想在海灘欣賞日落美景，只見好像有一堆東西在沙灘上，定神一看原來是成群的領航鯨擱淺在沙灘上，她們立刻丟下手中的行李朝沙灘奔去。
她們試圖將鯨魚推回海中，但成年領航鯨體重達2噸，用盡最大的力氣仍不為所動，「我聽見牠們對著彼此哭泣，說著沒有任何方法可以幫助牠們，此時最慘的是面對眼前的悲劇卻無能為力。」沙灘位置偏僻，手機沒有訊號，只好向15公里外環境保育員的駐地求援。
卡爾森在Instragram上寫道，「我永遠不會忘記牠們的哀鳴，牠們拼命想向海中游去，但身體的重量卻讓牠們越陷越深，」卡爾森曾看過野生的鯨魚在海中悠游，「但沒人有心理準備看見如此駭人的景象，我的心已經徹底碎了。」
Saturday night was the worst night of my entire life. 50kms into a 5 day tramp on the remote west coast of Stewart Island, we were wandering back to our camp at at sunset and came across hundreds of pilot whales becoming beached in the low surf. When we realized the horror of what we were seeing, we dropped everything and ran straight into the water. Desperately we grabbed their tails and pushed and yelled, before we got hammered by them thrashing around. It was useless - they were so big and heavy and the realization we could do nothing to save them was the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced. We were in a place with no people, no service, no help. @ju_riviera was a champion and took off running at 8:30pm in his wet sandy clothes and boots almost 15 kilometers back to a base hut up the bay where we knew there were DOC rangers working who would have a radio. He made it in 1.5 hours to raise the alarm, and I stayed with the whales til dark, sitting with them, dragging the smallest baby back in the water every few minutes before it would rebeach itself, and throwing water over the drier whales until my hands were numb from the water and wind. I’ll never forget their cries, the way they watched me as I sat with them in the water, how they desperately tried to swim but their weight only dug them deeper into the sands. My heart completely broke. When the realization there was no hope, it was almost dark, high tide was in the middle of the night and knowing this was one of the most remote places in New Zealand, I knew they would inevitable die. I sank to my knees in the sand screaming in frustration and crying, with the sound of dozens of dying whales behind me, utterly alone. It would take close to 1000 people to save them, more than double the whole population of Rakiura. The only positive bit was thanks to us alerting everyone, they were able to euthanize them shortly afterwards, and my heart hurts for the man who had that horrific job, and would have done anything to save them too. Otherwise it would have likely been days before anyone even knew the whales were there and a very long painful slow death for them all. I’ll never be the same after this.
Liz Carlson☀️Young Adventuress（@youngadventuress）分享的貼文 於 張貼
擱淺的145頭領航鯨中有不少幼鯨，卡爾森看見一頭成年的鯨魚試圖將身邊的幼鯨推回海中，就算自身已動彈不得，牠仍不放棄身邊的孩子。「我試著幫忙推著幼鯨，但牠卻不斷將自己推回岸上，」幼鯨彷彿不願意離開母親，卡爾森說，「你可以看見牠們眼中的恐懼，牠們看著妳的眼神就跟人類一樣。」
當環境保育員趕到時已經半夜，面對上百頭擱淺在荒蕪沙灘的鯨魚，他們明白一且都來不及了，卡爾森只能痛苦地趴在沙灘上大哭，最後保育員決定將鯨魚就地安樂死。紐西蘭自然保育部（DOC）表示會將這些鯨魚留在原地，讓大自然帶牠們離開。
紐西蘭自然保育部發言人雷朋斯（Ren Leppens）26日表示，在紐西蘭鯨魚擱淺並不稀奇，但如此大規模的擱淺卻很罕見，由於領航鯨是群居動物，或許是領頭的鯨魚方向錯誤，導致後方的鯨魚也跟著擱淺，亦或是疾病造成。
同樣在本周，有10頭虎鯨擱淺在紐西蘭北島北端144公里處的海邊，其中有2頭死亡，紐西蘭自然保育部表示兩起事件並無直接關聯。去年2月紐西蘭也發現416頭鯨魚集體擱淺，其中100頭生還，為當地史上最大規模的鯨魚擱淺事件。
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