Humpback in Whangarei Harbour

20
Oct

A humpback whale spent a couple of hours mooching around Whangarei Harbour yesterday. It is thought it was the first humpback seen in the harbour.

People at Urquharts Bay and Taurikura called whale expert Ingrid Visser in the morning to tell her the whale was heading up-harbour. Residents on vantage points were able to use their phones to guide Dr Visser’s team to the whale.

The whale expert and her team located the humpback at 9.18am and stayed near it for an hour.

“We followed it from Urquharts Bay up the harbour and left it near Snake Bank, right in the middle of the harbour,” an elated Dr Visser said.

During the time the whale was accompanied by Dr Visser’s boat it offered a magnificent view of itself once when it breached - leaping completely out of the water.

“It was definitely an adult, but we didn’t see it’s belly so couldn’t tell if it was male or female.”

The team on the boat saw clearly bite marks on the whale’s body from a cookie cutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis), also called a cigar shark.

With the whale’s back to the boat Dr Visser was unable to see if there were ropes attached to its lower jaw. She was hoping to tell if it was the same humpback seen last month near the Bay of Islands with rope entangled near its mouth.

That sighting came just hours after Dr Visser and DoC marine experts successfully freed another entangled whale from ropes further north off Karekare.

They had attached a grapnel hook, line and five buoys to the whale, the cluster of buoys acting as a floating anchor to tire and slow it enough for rescuers to cut the rope off its thorax.

While yesterday’s sighting is the first humpback recorded inside Whangarei Harbour, Dr Visser said it was not unusual to see them off the coast.

“It’s hard to know how many there are, but it’s not uncommon to see them. At this time of year they’re moving south to the Antarctic from the tropics. We’re starting to see them coming down the coast.”

There was also a sighting of 13 orca off the Hen and Chicken Islands yesterday, including the troublesome Ben who first stranded in 1997 and was run over by a boat in Whangarei Harbour in 1998.

Dr Visser said people should remember it was illegal to take boats closer than 50 metres to any whales. Anyone sighting whales could call the orca and whale specialist’s hotline, 0800seeorca.

Article from the Northern Advocate 20 October 2010

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