The Department of Conservation says up to 34 pilot whales remain stranded on Farewell Spit, have failed to re-float themselves in Tuesday's high tide at 1pm.
DoC says 31 whales that beached at the end of the Spit on Monday afternoon have already died.
DoC officials say the second pod became stranded overnight and have hardly moved since.
They say the mammals are in a remote tidal area and it is too dangerous to try to re-float them.
John Mason, Golden Bay area manager told Checkpoint says the live whales have moved a little closer to the beach, which is not good news.
He says the site of the stranding is a "hot spot" for whale strandings.
DoC now hopes the whales may be able to free themselves in the next high tide which is in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
