Beached beaked whale butchered

Department of Conservation ranger Graeme Loh measures up a dead beaked whale on Ocean View Beach...
Department of Conservation ranger Graeme Loh measures up a dead beaked whale on Ocean View Beach on Saturday with the help of Kane Whitehead (8). Photo by Craig Baxter.
A dead whale lying on Ocean View Beach near Brighton, has been illegally butchered, raising concerns that someone might risk illness by eating the meat which was possibly diseased.

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act it is illegal to take any part of a marine mammal without proper authorisation.

The 5.9m mature female, believed to be a type of beaked whale, washed up on the high tide mark overnight on Friday. It was still warm when found on Saturday morning.

Samples and measurements were taken by the Department of Conservation on Saturday before signs were posted, warning of the possibility the whale was diseased.

However, someone came along during the night and took a "huge back strap" and the tail fin.

Doc biodiversity assets programme manager David Agnew said it was "crazy" that anyone had taken meat from a dead mammal when they did not know how it had died.

Mr Agnew said police had been notified and were looking into the incident.

The law allows for six months jail or a fine of up to $250,000 for people caught harming marine mammals.

An autopsy yesterday morning failed to give any indication of what killed the whale.

Doc was liaising with Te Papa in Wellington, which had the largest collection of beaked whale skeletons, to identify the whale and to see what samples were needed for research.

The head and stomach contents were removed by Doc staff before the whale was buried near the beach. They would be frozen before being sent on to research facilities, he said.

As deep-sea whales rarely washed up, information gathered from the whale was important to scientists who knew very little about them, he said. Given it had recently died, it was possible a lot of its stomach contents could be identified.

Otago Conservation Board chairman Hoani Langsbury said he was very concerned that someone would do such a thing to a defenseless marine mammal.

If the culprits were found, he would recommend enforcement action was taken.

From Ngai Tahu and the local runanga's perspective, the mammal was important for traditional purposes, he said. A representative was present for the autopsy.

Beaked whales
- 11 species known to inhabit NZ waters
- Live in open ocean
- Dive to 300m for squid
- Have a small head, a beak and bulging forehead.

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