Scientists and wildlife officials continued to search Tuesday for what may have caused a series of mass strandings that left 169 whales and dolphins dead on Australian and New Zealand beaches in the past three days. 

Authorities and volunteers worked through Monday night to save dozens of whales and dolphins after three separate beachings in Australia and New Zealand.

As of yesterday, 96 long-finned pilot whales and bottle-nosed dolphins had died after the first beaching on Sunday at King Island, midway between the Australian mainland and the southern island state of Tasmania.

Tasmanian wildlife officer Shane Hunniford said another 19 long-finned pilot whales had died in a separate beaching on Monday on Maria Island, 60 kilometers east of the Tasmanian capital Hobart.

He said 43 whales had beached themselves on Maria Island but officials had managed to save 24 that had been found alive.

Across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, a mass grave was dug on a beach at Opoutere, 100 kilometers east of Auckland on the North Island, for 53 dead pilot whales.

Officials said 73 whales had become stranded there on Sunday, but 20 were saved. Of those 20, more were expected to die because many were too weak to follow the others out to sea.

"Some of them had suffered pretty significantly on the beach," New Zealand Conservation Department Manager John Gaukrodger said.

(China Daily December 1, 2004)