{"id":158274,"date":"2025-09-21T06:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T06:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158274\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T06:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T06:45:08","slug":"humpback-whale-dies-after-stranding-on-warrington-beach-near-dunedin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158274\/","title":{"rendered":"Humpback whale dies after stranding on Warrington Beach near Dunedin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cLarge, stranded whales, particularly in locations like this, can be extremely difficult to refloat.<\/p>\n
It said the whale did not move off the bar, and on Saturday afternoon, DoC staff approached the whale. <\/p>\n
\u201cTogether we assessed the whale\u2019s health, which showed signs of malnutrition, sickness, and possible physical injury. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe consulted with several organisations through the International Whaling Commission\u2019s Global Stranding Experts Panel to plan next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The whale was monitored into the evening, but at first light on Sunday, it was found to have died overnight.<\/p>\n
Project Jonah said the whale was already unwell, which was the likely reason it was unable to refloat itself. <\/p>\n
Project Jonah said medics monitored the whale throughout Saturday. Photo \/ Project Jonah and The Department of Conservation<\/p>\n
Department of Conservation (DoC) Operations Manager Gabe Davies said humpback whales becoming stranded ashore often indicated the animal was in poor condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumpback whales are a taonga and are normally found in deep water – when they come ashore like this, it is often because they are unwell,\u201d Davies said. <\/p>\n
Davies said working with stranded whales posed a \u201chigh risk to people\u2019s safety\u201d which is why staff chose to return to the beach once it was light.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now working with the local council and K\u0101ti Huirapa R\u016bnaka ki Puketeraki to develop a plan for the respectful relocation of the whale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLarge, stranded whales, particularly in locations like this, can be extremely difficult to refloat. It said the whale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[9490,64,63,17713,25453,105297,10852,105296,105298,5587,18692,105295,2652,1157,26945,128,55824,32884,10020,105294,38810,338],"class_list":["post-158274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-after","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beach","tag-despite","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-dunedin","tag-efforts","tag-from","tag-humpback","tag-near","tag-on","tag-rescue","tag-save","tag-science","tag-stranded","tag-stranding","tag-teams","tag-warrington","tag-whale","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}