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On average, each year about 300 dolphins and whales strand on New Zealand beaches each year, one of the highest stranding rates in the world.
Just in the past two weeks more than 500 pilot whales died after two mass strandings on the Chatham Islands.
Despite the frequency of strandings we still don't totally understand them.
A new study by Massey University researchers hopes to provide the first practical indicators for assessing welfare and likelihood of survival in stranded whales.One of the report's authors, Rebecca Boys speaks to Wallace.
More than 250 whales that stranded on the Chatham Islands on 7 October, 2022 died or had to be euthanised. Photo: Supplied / Tamzin Henderson