![▲纽西兰自然保育部将145头搁浅领航鲸就地安乐死。（图／路透）]()
▲纽西兰自然保育部将145头搁浅领航鲸就地安乐死。（图／路透）
记者张方瑀／编译
「我永远不会忘记牠们在海滩上的哀鸣」，来自美国的旅游部落客卡尔森（Liz Carlson）是第一位在纽西兰南岛南部海岸30公里的斯图尔特岛（Stewart Island），发现145头领航鲸（pilot whale）搁浅的人，「最惨的是你无能为力。」
她告诉《英国广播公司》（BBC），当时她与朋友正在斯图尔特岛（Stewart Island）健行，原想在海滩欣赏日落美景，只见好像有一堆东西在沙滩上，定神一看原来是成群的领航鲸搁浅在沙滩上，她们立刻丢下手中的行李朝沙滩奔去。
她们试图将鲸鱼推回海中，但成年领航鲸体重达2吨，用尽最大的力气仍不为所动，「我听见牠们对著彼此哭泣，说著没有任何方法可以帮助牠们，此时最惨的是面对眼前的悲剧却无能为力。」沙滩位置偏僻，手机没有讯号，只好向15公里外环境保育员的驻地求援。
卡尔森在Instragram上写道，「我永远不会忘记牠们的哀鸣，牠们拼命想向海中游去，但身体的重量却让牠们越陷越深，」卡尔森曾看过野生的鲸鱼在海中悠游，「但没人有心理准备看见如此骇人的景象，我的心已经彻底碎了。」
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）分享的贴文 于 张贴
搁浅的145头领航鲸中有不少幼鲸，卡尔森看见一头成年的鲸鱼试图将身边的幼鲸推回海中，就算自身已动弹不得，牠仍不放弃身边的孩子。「我试著帮忙推著幼鲸，但牠却不断将自己推回岸上，」幼鲸仿佛不愿意离开母亲，卡尔森说，「你可以看见牠们眼中的恐惧，牠们看著妳的眼神就跟人类一样。」
当环境保育员赶到时已经半夜，面对上百头搁浅在荒芜沙滩的鲸鱼，他们明白一且都来不及了，卡尔森只能痛苦地趴在沙滩上大哭，最后保育员决定将鲸鱼就地安乐死。纽西兰自然保育部（DOC）表示会将这些鲸鱼留在原地，让大自然带牠们离开。
纽西兰自然保育部发言人雷朋斯（Ren Leppens）26日表示，在纽西兰鲸鱼搁浅并不稀奇，但如此大规模的搁浅却很罕见，由于领航鲸是群居动物，或许是领头的鲸鱼方向错误，导致后方的鲸鱼也跟著搁浅，亦或是疾病造成。
同样在本周，有10头虎鲸搁浅在纽西兰北岛北端144公里处的海边，其中有2头死亡，纽西兰自然保育部表示两起事件并无直接关联。去年2月纽西兰也发现416头鲸鱼集体搁浅，其中100头生还，为当地史上最大规模的鲸鱼搁浅事件。
