Five local schools and Ōrewa Sea Scouts have been given whale tails, sponsored and paid for by Harcourts, to decorate as part of the Auckland-wide art trail, NZ’s Whale Tales.
Whangaparāoa College along with Stanmore Bay, Whangaparāoa, Kingsway and Stella Maris Primaries and Ōrewa Sea Scouts are among 80 organisations that will decorate and exhibit the 900mm-high tails.
The tails, like the larger ones currently on show on Ōrewa Beach and outside Whangaparāoa Library, are modelled on the tails of Bryde’s whales. Although they are often seen in the Hauraki Gulf waters, there are estimated to be only around 140-250 of these whales left and they are listed as ‘nationally critical’.
The tails will be exhibited starting mid-March and will also feature on the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Whale Tales app, trail map, website and social media.
At the conclusion of the exhibition, the tails will be returned to the schools or organisations that created them.
Whangaparāoa School teacher Debbie Thompson says students are excited to be part of the event. Their tail will be exhibited in Coast Plaza alongside some others from March 14-April 27.
WWF has organised science talks from experts, online, for schools as part of this, and Whangaparāoa School has also booked Project Jonah to do an online talk for students. “There is so much great learning linked to Tīkapa Moana (the Hauraki Gulf), and it follows on nicely from the Young Ocean Explorers 21 day Challenge that we completed last year, learning and thinking about how to be kaitiaki of the ocean,” Debbie says.
More info: whaletales2022
