Some 100 pilot whales have already died and 200 more whales remain stranded at a New Zealand beach as conservation officials and environmentalists are in a race to save the remaining struggling creatures.

At Farewell Spit beach in New Zealand, dry and sunny weather is becoming a serious threat, adding aggravation to the dehydrated and sunburnt whales. When high tide comes in, it will be a chance to refloat the whales once more and return them to their ocean home. Whales that can't survive will be put down unfortunately.

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This has been the most severe beaching event in the last 15 years. The region has witnessed eight incidents over the last decade with two incidents occurring in January 2014.

The beach is a relatively small area and this could pose as a risk for both the 200 whales and the conservationists trying to get in and help the marine animals.

Pilot whales are known to grow to 20 feet and they are the most common whale species found in the country. According to Department of Conservation spokesman Andrew Lamason, re-floating these stranded whales is a difficult and dangerous job.

There are about 140 community volunteers from Project Jonah in the Golden Bay area trained for this.

On Saturday, 60 pilot whales were refloated. Rescuers say they're looking good and are stronger now. Some 60 whales, however, became restranded and 400 volunteers are working to keep them alive and refloat them.

Lead whales were taken out on pontoons while the others were moved to follow them. The lead whales are now actually swimming into deeper water and seem to be going in the right direction. Volunteers are keeping an eye on them. The whales were monitored overnight on Saturday.

Experts and scientists suspect the shallow, sloping waters affected the whales' echo location ability. Pilot whales are highly social creatures and one whale gets stranded, its pod mates swim in to help. This helpfulness probably caused this massive beaching incident.

Farewell Spit is in Golden Bay near Nelson. It's known that whales become hopelessly stranded in its extended shallow waters. It's seen many beaching incidents over the years.

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