Stranded Minke whale refloated by rescue team last weekend
In appalling weather conditions last weekend, whale rescuers struggled to keep a 5.3metre-long Minke whale (photo right) alive so that it could be refloated.
The whale was first spotted by tourists through powerful binoculars at the Paddlecrab Café. Restaurant staff immediately hurried down the inner Farewell Spit beach to deliver first aid to the whale.
Café manager Leighton Jones said the whale appeared to be very alert and in “reasonably good condition” when they arrived, equipped with the whale stranding gear which is kept at Triangle Point.
When DOC rangers Selena Brown and Mike Ogle arrived at the scene they were in for a long haul. They stayed with the whale until dark as they had to wait for the high tide before they could move the whale into deeper water.
“The whale was about 4.5 kilometres up from Triangle Point at the inner Farewell Spit beach and we went out there soon after we received the call early in the afternoon," said Mike. "We stuck with the whale and kept it moist until we could refloat it. It swam off towards Puponga, but stayed parallel to the beach. By then we were trapped by the high tide too so we had to wait until 11.30pm before we could get out.”
The rescuers did not get very far as they found the whale again at the Crossing Road where they had to leave it overnight covered in sheets.
The next rescue team arrived at 5am the following morning and managed to pull the whale out to sea in a net stretched between two pontoons dragged by a boat.
“We pulled the whale out five kilometres before we set it free and was last seen swimming strongly towards the open sea," said Mike "We don’t know why it beached itself, but the Spit is a bit of a whale trap with that gently sloping beach.”
The beached specimen was most likely a teenaged Minke whale, although to confirm the exact species, tissue samples taken by Department of Conservation staff were sent to Massey University for analysis.
The Minke whale is the smallest and most abundant of the baleen whales. Adults reach an average length of eight to nine metres and they have a distinctive triangular, narrow, and pointed snout. Like all baleen whales, Minkes are seasonal feeders and carnivores, sieving ocean water to filter out plankton, krill and small fish.
DOC staff said they appreciated the help from the public and urge people to continue to be vigilant for troubled whales at this time of the year.
Ina Holst
