{"id":500553,"date":"2026-06-29T04:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/500553\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:46:19","slug":"investigation-after-dozens-of-dead-eagle-rays-wash-up-at-porirua-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/500553\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation after dozens of dead eagle rays wash up at Porirua beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">DoC senior marine science adviser Karen Middlemiss said the department was \u201caware of the mass death event\u201d but noted that eagle rays and rig sharks are not protected species.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Biosecurity New Zealand team manager, aquatic health Mike Taylor said specialist staff would visit the site today to collect and test samples to rule out exotic disease as a cause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe suspect that the mortality could have happened due to the recent stormy weather or potential predatory action from orcas,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">It comes after a period of severe weather in the capital, which caused seabirds to be injured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">The Herald yesterday reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/wellington\/bird-rescues-seeing-more-animals-in-worse-condition-amid-wellingtons-wild-weather\/S4VDT2PFFRASVAGKDMXHGRQ5QM\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/wellington\/bird-rescues-seeing-more-animals-in-worse-condition-amid-wellingtons-wild-weather\/S4VDT2PFFRASVAGKDMXHGRQ5QM\/\">Flock Birdcare Wellington had seen an increase in injured birds, crediting the recent \u201ccrazy weather\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Orcas are no strangers to Wellington\u2019s waters, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/drone-footage-shows-orcas-hunting-stingrays-along-wellington-south-coast\/HB2HPEB73BFT5MN3RNEAWONGIY\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/drone-footage-shows-orcas-hunting-stingrays-along-wellington-south-coast\/HB2HPEB73BFT5MN3RNEAWONGIY\/\">drone footage<\/a> showing the creatures hunting stingrays off the city\u2019s south coast earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Stingrays are a staple food of orcas, with the predators regularly patrolling shallow waters, beaches, and harbours around the country to hunt rays. They often herd them right to the shoreline and sometimes even beach themselves in the process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DoC senior marine science adviser Karen Middlemiss said the department was \u201caware of the mass death event\u201d but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,1975,7972,13432,8604,690,6183,75819,17709,12898,130,111,43,139,69,1118,29462,214147,10809,131,810,83619,6923,80],"class_list":["post-500553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-at","tag-beach","tag-biosecurity","tag-caused","tag-dead","tag-dozens","tag-eagle","tag-investigating","tag-investigation","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-porirua","tag-rays","tag-sunday","tag-than","tag-up","tag-wash","tag-what","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500553","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=500553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}