The humpack whale calf beached in Northland has died, with the larger whale set to be refloated on Monday morning.
The pair were marooned south of Baylys Beach near Dargaville on Sunday morning.
Efforts to refloat the pair during high tide on Sunday evening failed despite DOC workers keeping them upright and wet throughout the day.
Whale biologist Dr Ingrid Visser spent the night on the beach with the whales. She told The AM Show a digger is set to arrive on Monday morning to dig trenches back to sea.
Dr Visser said that while the larger whale was obviously distressed, it hadn't given up.
"The larger of the whales is still talking and moving its fins around quite a bit so it is active, and that gives us quite a bit of hope."
A third whale was sighted offshore yesterday, but night patrols haven't found it stranded along the beach.
Dr Visser has commended the local community for their action after the whales were found on Sunday.
"The people were absolutely remarkable in their efforts. It was impressive how they managed to pivot the whale around and keep it facing towards the waves so that it didn't roll over."
She says if any extra help is needed it will be announced by the Department of Conservation via the Dargaville Fire Brigade Facebook page.
Dr Visser says no one knows how the whales ended up on the beach.
"Whales, just like us, make mistakes for the simplest of reasons, and it could have just been that the young one was playing with a piece of seaweed in the surf and then got caught in the surge, who knows. Nobody actually saw the event happen, they were discovered early yesterday morning."
She says rescuers will be giving the refloating everything they've got.
Newshub.
