A large pygmy blue whale has washed ashore at Carters Beach, near Westport.
Department of Conservation (DOC) acting operations manager Buller District Kushla Tapper said the whale was seen floating in the surf yesterday and beached today.
The pygmy blue whale is 21.7 metres long and it is believed to weigh about 20 tonnes.
Tapper said DOC staff had been in contact with local iwi to observe tikanga and decide the future of the whale’s body.
“A lot of locals have come down to see this beautiful creature. It’s unusual and impressive to have a whale of this size on the beach.”
Tapper said the whale had recently died and its cause of death was not known. Tissue samples had been taken for future research.
DOC was working with contractors with diggers to bury the whale’s body in the sand near the dunes.
She said anyone visiting the site was advised to keep their distance.
“As well as being very hard to remove the oily smell from any contact with the whale or surrounding beach sand, it is an offence under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 to interfere with any whale – dead or alive – without authority.”
Westport resident Trace said she heard that a whale had washed up on Tuesday afternoon and drove out to Carters Beach to check it out. She said it was just over two kilometres down the beach, south of the township.
“Driving towards it was surreal because it just got bigger and bigger the closer you got to it, to be honest, ” she said.
“The mouth was completely open and there was this mass and apparently it was the tongue and it was just absolutely huge.”
She said there was trail of blood flowing from the front of the whale out to sea and the smell of blood was noticeable, but at the back of the whale, the smell was “deathly”.
“Children were gagging from the smell, it was quite pungent.
“Four or five metres away you could still really smell it quite strongly and when I got home, I had to wash my shoes because I could still smell it.”
She said many people were fascinated by the whale, but there was also sadness at seeing it washed ashore.
DOC said people could whale conservation by reporting sightings to DOC. Sightings are always valuable and help increase our knowledge of whale distribution and movements around New Zealand.