{"id":415975,"date":"2026-05-07T09:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/415975\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:08:07","slug":"drone-footage-shows-orcas-hunting-stingrays-along-wellington-south-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/415975\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone footage shows orcas hunting stingrays along Wellington south coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AA pod of orcas delighted a drone operator and people on shore as they hunted for stingrays off Wellington’s south coast at Island Bay on Anzac Day. Photo screengrab via video \/ Michael Lanzensberger<\/p>\n

He was also thrilled by the public response, with people running along the beach or dashing across rocks as the orcas swam<\/a> almost to the shoreline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a massive event. There were so many people following them from Lyall Bay all the way to Island Bay. It was just huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a music track, he\u2019d overlaid the sound of the orcas captured on his wife\u2019s smartphone with the drone footage, which has no sound, Lanzensberger said.<\/p>\n

Drones can\u2019t be flown any closer than 150m directly above marine mammals, according to the Department of Conservation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As well as following the department\u2019s rules, Lanzensberger also stuck to flying in an area that\u2019s geographically \u201cshielded\u201d from Wellington Airport\u2019s airspace, allowing him to launch his drone without a permit.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe orcas were seen from Lyall Bay to Island Bay along Wellington’s south coast on Anzac Day. Photo screengrab via video \/ Michael Lanzensberger<\/p>\n

In 13 years of capturing sea life from above, he said the footage was the best he\u2019d got, prompting him to share it with the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for [this] to happen. I\u2019ve seen whales, but either they were at the wrong spot or I didn\u2019t have the drone with me or the weather was wrong \u2026 but so many things came together on that particular day it finally worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pod of orcas delighted a drone operator and people on shore as they hunted for stingrays off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[33846,1558,9260,11586,25094,19473,32655,2061,111,139,69,76836,147,5348,418,1240,32741,180387,52,15900,406],"class_list":["post-415975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-along","tag-been","tag-captured","tag-coast","tag-drone","tag-footage","tag-hunting","tag-nature","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-orcas","tag-science","tag-showing","tag-shows","tag-south","tag-spectacle","tag-stingrays","tag-wellington","tag-wellingtons","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}