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A leading marine biologist
will today visit the site of a mass orca stranding,
to try and understand what brought the whales ashore.
The pod of nine orcas died on a remote western Southland beach
on Tuesday night.
Doctor Ingrid Visser says
it's the worst stranding of the species on the mainland
in 60 years.
The Orca Research Trust will work with DOC and local iwi
to investigate the stranding.
It also hopes to use the tragedy to gain new insight
into the genetic make-up and social structures of orca pods.