DENNIS, Mass., July 29 (UPI) -- As many as 10 pilot whales died Monday after more than 50 became stranded on a Cape Cod beach.
About 200 volunteers helped push dozens of whales back to deeper water during the afternoon high tide.
"At 2 p.m., about 40 to 45 had been pushed back out to sea," Rebecca Lipchitz of the New England Aquarium told United Press International.
She said five of the animals were dead, but the Cape Cod Times put the number as high as 10. The dead whales will be autopsied.
Lipchitz said at least one whale had to be euthanized because it was too far gone to rescue.
"There's always a likelihood they may beach again," she said, as one calf tried to do, but as of early afternoon "most of them were out to sea."
The pilot whales, which average 10 feet as calves but can grow to 25 feet as adults, were discovered by early-morning walkers on the beaches at Dennis, Mass.
Rescuers quickly arrived and covered the whales with wet towels and splashed them with water to protect them from the midday sun.
Lipchitz said the rescue was a joint effort of the Cape Cod Stranding Network and the Rescue and Rehab Department at the New England Aquarium.
Such mass strandings are unusual in summer.
