Conservation officials and volunteers were struggling Sunday to save the lives of a growing number of pilot whales that had run aground at the top of New Zealand's South Island.

Department of Conservation (DOC) rangers said 71 whales were stranded over a 1.5 km stretch of beach on Farewell Spit, and eight of the whales were dead.

Volunteers had been arriving to care for the remaining 63 whales, keeping them as comfortable as possible and wet with buckets of sea water, said a DOC statement.

The DOC has put out a call for people with wetsuits to help refloat the whales with the afternoon's high tide.

Sixty-eight whales, including seven dead, had been stranded on Farewell Spit late Saturday. The survivors had refloated in the overnight high tide, but were beached again early Sunday.

Thirteen of a pod of 53 whales died Saturday when they were stranded on Farewell Spit.

The 40 survivors refloated later in the day, but returned to the shore again with another 10 whales.

It is the third mass stranding on Farewell Spit in less than two weeks.

Twelve pilot whales died and DOC staff euthanized another 27 after a mass stranding on Jan. 6.

Another nine pilot whales were euthanized and five died after a second mass stranding on Jan. 14. Endi

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