The Department of Conservation put out a request yesterday to look out for a whale which was spotted about 5 nautical miles off Taiaroa Head on Wednesday afternoon.
A southern right whale was reportedly seen entangled with a large pink buoy, which was impairing its ability to move freely.
‘‘The report we had was of a large southern right whale, although we don’t have photos so haven’t been able to confirm this,’’ Doc operations manager Gabe Davies said.
‘‘The whale was reported to be entangled with the pink buoy and appeared to be swimming around it with impaired ability to move freely.
‘‘The team did a thorough grid search yesterday but couldn’t locate the whale or the buoy. We don’t know whether the whale has got itself free or remains entangled.’’
Southern right whales did not follow a usual north/south route, which made it difficult to track down the whale, he said.
Doc was appealing to the public to report any sightings of either the whale or the buoy.
It needed details of its location, ideally GPS co-ordinates, the direction it was headed, the time of sighting and photos if possible, Mr Davies said.
The whale had not been located by late yesterday afternoon.
A southern right whale was successfully disentangled from a blue cod pot line off Stewart Island earlier this month.
A whale was sighted off Kaikoura with a tangled line in February but it was never found.
Doc marine species manager Michelle Boyle said the department did not know if entanglement frequency was increasing.
It was difficult to analyse trends and assign causes, so Doc could only speculate, she said.
‘‘It has been noted that humpback whales have been seen in Kaikōura every month for the past year, rather than just during migration season. This means that there may be more opportunities for whales to get tangled,’’ she said.
‘‘It is also thought that some of these whales that are hanging around rather than migrating are possibly younger animals, who are more likely to be curious and may interact with fishing gear they come across, increasing their risk.’’
Whale populations were generally thought to be increasing since the end of whaling, so more whales may mean more chances of entanglement.
People setting craypots could reduce the risk of whales getting entangled in them by minimising the length of floating slack craypot line, allowing only enough for tidal action. Avoiding setting pots offshore in deeper water during June and July would also significantly reduce the risk.
