Wellington  - More than 100 pilot whales died in a mass stranding on an isolated beach in the Chatham Islands, a New Zealand-owned group in the Pacific Ocean, about 700 kilometres south-east of the capital Wellington, reports said Friday.

The Department of Conservation was notified of the mass stranding at Mairangi on Thursday night, but the tide had gone out by the time staff reached the site, Radio New Zealand reported.

Eight surviving whales were so badly injured that they had to be put down, the report said.

About 600 people live on the Chatham Islands, where the Department of Conservation runs sanctuaries for threatened species. (dpa)