Wednesday, 03 September 2008
INITIAL reports that a live whale had beached itself on Ohope beach yesterday morning turned out to be over-optimistic.
The whale was found at the eastern end of the Ohope beach, past the motor camp.
Commuters listened with interest to Radio 1XX reports of a “whale stranding” as they drove to work.
A woman caller said she had seen a fin move and had told Department of Conservation staff the whale was alive.
However, on inspection the juvenile sperm whale was found to be dead - and probably for some time, DoC community relations ranger Mike Jones said.
“It’s a young male, eight metres long, and it has died from natural causes - possibly from having been attacked by a larger predator,” he said.
Mr Jones said adult sperm whales could grow up to 20 metres in length.
After speaking with Ngati Awa representatives, an agreement that the whale should be buried had been reached.
“We will take some scientific samples, as per standard DoC practice, and the whale will then be buried at a more appropriate site,” Mr Jones said.
Later on, Ngati Awa could make an application to have the bones from the carcass, but the most pressing priority was the health and safety risks.
“We need to get the carcass off the beach,” Mr Jones said.
“For health and safety reasons - we don’t want beachgoers climbing all over it.”
Aside from human beings, only orcas attack sperm whales.
Groups of roving orcas are known to target groups of female sperm whales with young, trying to separate the sperm whale calf from its mother in order to kill it.
The female sperm whales can often repel the attacks by forming a circle around the calves, thrashing their tail flukes so no orca can penetrate the formation.
Sperm whales are found in all the oceans and in the Mediterranean Sea. They are the largest of all toothed whales and the largest toothed animal. They feed on squid and fish, diving as deep as 2200 metres to get to their prey, making it the deepest-diving mammal in the world.
They can live for more than 80 years.