Researchers undertake photo identification of a southern
right whale in Port Ross in the Auckland Islands. Photo by
Trudi Webster.
There have been no sightings of the southern right whale
entangled in a cray pot line off the coast of Otago, even by a
marine science team returning from research in the Auckland
Islands.
The whale entangled in the line was spotted by a photographer
about two weeks ago and there were concerns the situation
could lead to its death.
University of Otago research fellow Dr Will Rayment said it
was unlikely anyone would see it while the weather was bad,
but he believed the whale had probably moved elsewhere by
now.
"The chance of seeing it again is a bit slim."
The whale could have naturally disentangled itself, or if the
rope was towing gear it would be restricting its ability to
feed and over time would wear it down to the point it could
die, he said.
Entanglement was one of the dangers faced by the whales as
they returned to the New Zealand coast.
Dr Rayment said the team of researchers had been in the
Auckland Islands to study the habitat preferences and
movement patterns of whales as well as the winter diet of New
Zealand sea lions and the pollutant loads in marine wildlife.
It was the second trip during a three-year multidisciplinary
research project.
The trip was more challenging due to the wind and snow to sea
level which hit the islands during the trip, he said.
As Port Ross, where Otago University research vessel Polaris
II was based, was sheltered and home to many whales, they
were able to continue their work.
A time-lapse digital camera which had been left in the port
for a year was recovered and it was hoped the 7000 images
would show a full year of the mammal's use of the port.
While the numbers "were still to be crunched", impressions
were the number of whales in the area was similar to last
year and that they were in good condition.
"They looked fat and healthy."
For the first time they travelled to other areas of the
islands to see if there were similar populations of the
whales but found none.
The unusually high number of ships visiting the port meant
the usually pristine acoustic environment of the area was not
as good as usual, affecting the planned recordings to see the
ways the whales communicated, he said.
The results of the research will be released in 2012.
rebecca.fox@odt.co.nz
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