Māhia Whale: autopsied, harvested

Contractors at Opoutama Beach in the early evening of Friday prepare to haul ashore the 16m whale which stranded there. Picture by Liam Clayton

The discovery of a 16-metre-long bull sperm whale washed up dead in the shallows at Opoutama Beach on Friday drew intrigue and emotion and even resulted in a misunderstanding about customary processing of blubber.

Residents awoke to see the already-deceased whale washed towards the shore and quickly alerted Department of Conservation staff to the scene.

Specialists from Massey University carried out a post mortem on the whale, which appeared to have been healthy but tissue samples were sent for testing.

The whale was blessed and a cultural harvesting overseen by Māhia Māori Committee (MMC).

However, the depositing of two trailer-loads of the whale’s blubber near a tidal inlet at Waikokopu Harbour sparked concern from a local resident who initially thought it had been dumped and reported their concern.

Department of Conservation operations manager Tairāwhiti East Coast Matt Tong said the blubber was at the inlet as part of the harvesting process.

“This will be there for a couple of days to cleanse it before it is removed and rendered down, in line with tikanga and customary practice.”

Māori view whales that are washed ashore as a sacrificial gift from Tangaroa and in a well-organised, respectful undertaking during the weekend, the MMC harvested the whale’s jawbone, tongue, blubber, and spermaceti (an oil) from its head.

It is understood the oil will be sent north for use in treating kauri dieback disease.

Among those involved in the harvesting was retired DoC ranger Graeme Atkins who posted about it on his Facebook page. Mr Atkins said it was good to see there were no plastic items in the whale’s stomach or intestines, which can sometimes be the cause of whale deaths.

DoC ranger biodiversity Zac Penman said, “Marine mammal strandings are not fully understood, and DoC responds to an average 85 marine mammal stranding incidents a year, mostly of single animals.

“This year around Gisborne there have been 30 whale strandings. Twenty-three of these have been at Mahia Beach/Opoutama, which is considered a ‘whale trap’ as the gentle rise of the bottom of the ocean is undetectable by toothed whales’ echolocation and they end up on the beach.

“Twenty-seven of the whale strandings have been pygmy sperm whales, the smaller cousins of the full-sized sperm whale that stranded at the weekend, maxing out at about 3.5m. Two have been fully grown sperm whales; the male on the weekend, and a female at Loisel’s beach earlier in the year.”

There had also been a Greys beaked whale washed up at Opoutama, Mr Penman said.

Sperm whales are the largest toothed predator in the world. They have been recorded diving to depths of over 2000 metres and stay for about 45 minutes. They spend their time hunting giant squid in the darkness of deep ocean trenches and are rarely seen at the ocean’s surface.

The name of the sperm whale comes from the word spermaceti - a semi-liquid waxy substance largely found in the whale’s head cavity. The substance closely resembles semen but it’s not. Spermaceti assists in the animal’s buoyancy control and echolocation. Spermaceti oil was highly demanded back in the 19th and 20th centuries for making candles, lamp oil, and lubricant.