A southern right whale and her calf have moved south past Auckland after four days off the Northland coast, and the Department of Conservation has asked people to watch them from the beach rather than chase them in boats.
The pair spent the weekend in the water off Ngunguru and Pātaua, east of Whangārei, and were last seen off the coast of northern Auckland. DOC said on Thursday that they appear to be making their way slowly south, and it wants boaties and jet ski riders to keep a careful lookout while the pair are still in busy coastal water.
One part of the request is unusual. Alongside the standard advice about speed and distance, DOC has asked people not to broadcast where the whales are at any given moment.
“Southern right whales can spend time close to the coast, which gives people a wonderful opportunity to see them, but it also means they can encounter busy recreational boating areas,” DOC marine technical advisor Hannah Hendriks said. “We are asking people to enjoy these whales from land rather than on the water and avoid advertising the animals’ live position so we can prevent unnecessary disturbance to these whales.”
Hendriks said the pair would have come up from the subantarctic islands and needed rest before a long trip back to their feeding grounds. “The pair will have travelled up from the subantarctic islands and will need lots of rest, particularly the calf, as they prepare for a long migration to their feeding ground south of Australia,” she said. “Interruptions to their natural behaviours could put them at risk.”
She also pointed out the practical problem with a whale that does not get out of the way. “Southern right whales are slow-moving whales, and may not be able to move out of the way of vessels in time to avoid being hit,” Hendriks said. “Whales can be difficult to spot from a moving boat, particularly when they are resting or travelling slowly near the surface. Slowing down and giving them plenty of room is critical to prevent injury and disturbance, especially to calves.”
The calf has a name. Local whale expert Hori Parata, described by DOC as a tohorā tohunga, a specialist in these whales, named it Te Pāpunui after the culturally significant site at Pātaua where the pair were first reported. Representatives of the Ngāti Kororā and Ngāti Takapari hapū said they were thrilled the two whales had been able to use the coast safely as nursery ground, and thanked the Pātaua South, Pātaua North and Ngunguru communities for helping to keep watch over the four days.
The rules around whales are not just guidance. Under the Marine Mammals Protection Regulations 1992, no vessel may approach within 50 metres of a whale, and nobody may approach within 200 metres of a female baleen whale accompanied by a calf. A master of a vessel within 300 metres of any marine mammal has to use their best endeavours to travel at a constant slow speed, at idle or no wake speed. Vessels cannot cut across an animal’s path, and nobody is allowed to separate a mother from her calf. Breaching the regulations is an offence under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978, which sets a fine of up to $10,000 where no other penalty applies. DOC also asks that drones stay 150 metres away.
Vessel strike is one of the four main threats DOC lists for the species, alongside entanglement, tourism pressure and coastal development. It is a real risk for an animal that rests near the surface and does not move quickly.
Southern right whales got the name because whalers considered them the right whale to catch. DOC’s species page puts it plainly, saying they were easy to approach, lived close to shore and provided large quantities of meat, oil and whalebone. They were hunted to near extinction around New Zealand in the early nineteenth century, and the population that once bred in sheltered inshore water around the mainland was effectively wiped out.
What is happening now is the slow reversal of that. DOC lists the conservation status of southern right whales as nationally increasing, with a population estimated at somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 animals. Most of them spend the breeding season around the subantarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands, and only some venture north to the mainland. Genetic work suggests the whales turning up around the mainland are part of the subantarctic population and that the species could be undergoing a range expansion, essentially feeling its way back into country it lost two centuries ago.
That makes a mother and calf resting off a Northland beach more than a nice weekend. Females do not calve often, generally about once every three years after reaching maturity at around eight years old, with a pregnancy of roughly eleven months and about another year of nursing. A newborn is between 4.5 and 6 metres long. Adults reach 11 to 18 metres. They are the only large baleen whales in New Zealand that can reliably be seen from the beach, which is exactly why DOC would rather people stood on the sand.
Not every part of the coast has got them back. DOC notes that a combination of fishing, coastal development and harassment explains why the whales no longer turn up in Wellington Harbour, once a place they were seen.
DOC wants sightings reported, which helps it track where the pair go next. Reports can be made through the SeaSpotter app or the DOC website. Anyone who accidentally injures or kills a protected marine species has to report it to DOC as soon as possible on 0800 DOC HOT, which is 0800 362 468.
Have you seen the pair from the shore, or spotted whales off your own stretch of coast this spring. Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
Leave a Reply