Environment – Beautiful beaked whales

New Zealand has 13 of the 24 known beaked whale species found worldwide. Over summer, there have been more than a dozen sightings reported from the Auckland region, and around the country, to my Whale and Dolphin Spotting NZ Facebook page.

There have been live sightings of an Arnoux’s beaked whale off Tawharanui, and possibly the same animal in the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour, near Riverhead, a couple of days later. A juvenile strap-toothed beaked whale died at Long Bay in mid-April. An adult with the juvenile self-refloated, and was potentially the same one that later stranded and refloated again, at Shakespear Regional Park on the same day. A magnificent Ginkgo-toothed whale was found deceased on Muriwai beach a few days before.

Lack of funding, lack of capacity and impracticality are factors limiting necropsies to determine the causes of death. Beaked whales grow to between four and 13 metres, so moving them to a site for necropsy is difficult. Sometimes their bodies are too decomposed to tell why they died, although it was suggested the rotten-beaked whale that washed up on the Riverhead boat ramp over summer was killed by boat strike. That was also potentially the cause of death for the amazing five metre-long, 1.3-tonne male spade-toothed beaked whale that washed up at Taiari (Taieri) river mouth in July last year. It’s one of the rarest whales in the world, with only six or seven recorded since the 1800s. All but one of those records were from New Zealand.

In te reo, beaked whales are called hakurā, which is also the name for Gray’s beaked whales, the most commonly stranded type. One stranded at Okoromai Bay in 2016 and another at Red Beach in 2022.

I had a moving personal encounter with the Red Beach Gray’s beaked whale out on my paddleboard when she spent the week in Whangaparāoa (Bay of Whales). The whale slowly and gently circled me and my board as I floated in the bay.

I went back to see her at the end of the week from a local carpark. By that stage she was clearly in trouble. She’d already stranded during the week and was refloated by caring beach goers. By Friday, she was just behind the breakers on an incoming tide as evening fell. She was smashed against rocks overnight, and found dead on the beach in the morning (Hibiscus Matters, Mar 24, 2022).

There’s lots of concern about the number of beaked whales stranded and dead over summer. Public theories range from climate change to military testing. Scientists say these deaths may not be the sign of a concerning trend, just more people are looking and reporting the deaths. There’s a lot we don’t know, and speculation is to be expected.

Beaked whales are beautiful and special taonga, mysteries of the magnificent ocean.