Project Jonah confirmed the news of the whale\u2019s death at 9pm on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal iwi, Te Kawerau \u0101 Maki, are with the whale, ensuring it continues to be respected and working with DoC around next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Te Kawerau a Maki iwi pou taiao environment manager Ashleigh McDonald and a colleague had been at Scott Pt overnight since they were told about the dead whale yesterday afternoon. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe slept in sleeping bags on the rocks to make sure we stayed by the whale\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald said the death of the whale is being treated as a \u201ccultural experience and process\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very rare whale and a taonga for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dead mammal had to be towed by jetski closer to shore to stop it from floating away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do next and where we take him is totally down to logistics. I\u2019m working with my chief executive to ensure the process is right,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment we will stay and wait here to make sure everyone\u2019s respectful.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald said the response by the community had been positive overall, with local schools and residents having offered support.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means so much to us because we have marae land just around the corner so he [the whale] and this area is taonga to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
DoC wildlife response volunteer Shaun Lee, who was one of the first on scene when the whale stranded earlier in the week, today said he was sad to learn the creature didn\u2019t survive.<\/p>\n
Lee stayed in the water by himself for an hour beside the mammal until volunteer crews from Project Jonah arrived.<\/p>\n
He later posted to social media about the encounter saying, \u201cyesterday was incredibly stressful, trying to keep this three-tonne shepherd\u2019s beaked whale off the beach by myself while the tide was going out\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween dodging its powerful tail and big teeth, worrying about the whale, and communicating with experts, it was a short but serious physical and emotional challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Shepherd’s beaked whale was first stranded for seven hours until volunteers managed to free it. Photo \/ Supplied \/ #richardthekayaker<\/p>\n
People took to Facebook to comment on Lee\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow, Shaun, great commitment… great job.. thank you\u201d, while another posted, \u201cYou are astounding Shaun\u201d and \u201cgreat work Shaun. You are an inspiration\u201d.<\/p>\n
Project Jonah spokeswoman Louisa Hawkes told RNZ that Shepherd\u2019s beaked whales lived in the deep sea and would only come to shore if something was wrong.<\/p>\n
She said Shepherd\u2019s beaked whales have only been spotted at sea four times, with fewer than 50 strandings recorded globally.<\/p>\n
Rose said it\u2019s not uncommon for sick whales to seek refuge in the upper Waitemat\u0101 Harbour.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, a lot of strandings end up in re-strandings then death.\u201d<\/p>\n
She praised the efforts of Lee and other volunteers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve experienced a very similar, deeply personal encounter with a beaked whale and it\u2019s upsetting when they end up dying… but it\u2019s common. They did all they could do.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said after the whale was floated by pontoon out to sea it was spotted under Devonport Wharf \u201clooking strong\u201d before beaching again in Hobsonville.<\/p>\n
DoC\u2019s mainland Auckland operations manager Bec Rush said it was unusual for a deep-water species of whale to be found close to shore, with such incidents often a sign it is injured or sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have taken tissue samples for scientific analysis and are working alongside mana whenua to remove the remains from the current spot to a suitable burial site,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to everyone involved this week, including Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua \u014cr\u0101kei, Ng\u0101ti Paoa, Te Kawerau \u0101 Maki, Project Jonah and Massey University, and the volunteers and public who have been a great support.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Project Jonah confirmed the news of the whale\u2019s death at 9pm on Wednesday. \u201cLocal iwi, Te Kawerau \u0101…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[259367,8845,9490,8814,64,22065,63,259368,27929,21677,7504,9278,105297,38811,154448,4717,23989,17165,124700,128,55824,9501,18570,38810,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-519448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-18km","9":"tag-across","10":"tag-after","11":"tag-again","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-auckland","14":"tag-australia","15":"tag-beached","16":"tag-beaches","17":"tag-being","18":"tag-by","19":"tag-city","20":"tag-died","21":"tag-freed","22":"tag-harbour","23":"tag-in","24":"tag-later","25":"tag-popular","26":"tag-rare","27":"tag-science","28":"tag-stranded","29":"tag-that","30":"tag-volunteers","31":"tag-whale","32":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519448","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=519448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}