NZ rescuers save 9 whales stranded on beach
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Crews with bulldozers buried 49 pilot whales in sand dunes on an isolated northern New Zealand beach Sunday after rescuers managed to save only nine from a group that was stranded on the beach for two days.
Indigenous Maori elders chanted prayers over the carcasses before bulldozers stripped open a trench above the waterline to bury the mammals, which died despite efforts by more than 200 rescuers. Four of the 13 survivors later were euthanized after they beached again, bringing the overall death toll to 49. (AP)
