\u201cA team went out in a DoC vessel and located the pod of orca. We engaged with several vessels, providing details of the rules for operating vessels in the presence of marine mammals.\u201d<\/p>\n
A white boat chasing the orca around the harbour, driving straight over the top of them.<\/p>\n
The video sparked a strong reaction online, with many commenters calling for those involved to be identified and reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should have boats confiscated for that,\u201d one person wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI so hope they get done for this. Absolutely shocking behaviour,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n
Others suggested the behaviour breached marine mammal regulations.<\/p>\n
Marine mammal protection rules restrict how craft can approach whales and dolphins and prohibits behaviour that may disturb them.<\/p>\n
Whatton said the Department of Conservation was seeking any additional evidence of potentially non-compliant behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage any witnesses with photo or video evidence of non-compliant behaviour to contact DoC via info@doc.govt.nz, and for all water users to familiarise themselves with the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is urging anyone with photos or video of the incident to come forward as it gathers information about what occurred in the harbour.<\/p>\n
The sighting was the latest in a series of appearances by orca in Auckland waters, where the animals often draw crowds of boaties and spectators eager for a closer look.<\/p>\n
Marine mammal conservation group Project Jonah previously told the Herald that orcas regularly enter Auckland\u2019s harbours and shallow coastal waters while hunting rays.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand orcas are the only ones in the world that feed on rays, and rays are shallow coastal animals,\u201d the organisation said at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cA team went out in a DoC vessel and located the pod of orca. We engaged with several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,74,3952,1558,80138,38602,1647,651,22195,16840,1958,19473,8455,209,20589,305,12898,3180,111,43,139,69,1118,5533,315753,82886,1560,27950,114941],"class_list":["post-644105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accused","tag-after","tag-aucklands","tag-been","tag-boaties","tag-boats","tag-breaking","tag-close","tag-doc","tag-filmed","tag-focus","tag-footage","tag-getting","tag-group","tag-harbour","tag-have","tag-investigation","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-orca","tag-perilously","tag-pod","tag-report","tag-seeks","tag-waitemat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644105","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=644105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}