Australian water camera operator Andre Rerekura filming a young male false killer whale off the coast of Northland. Photo / BBC
Australian water camera operator Andre Rerekura filming a young male false killer whale off the coast of Northland. Photo / BBC
Fascinating footage of New Zealand’s unique marine mammals captured in Northland will feature on BBC’s landmark series Mammals this weekend.
Northland-based marine scientists from Far Out Ocean Research Collective were invited to take part in one episode of the Sir David Attenborough-narrated series which is currently airing on TVNZ.
The episode, which screens on Sunday evening and is called Water, features New Zealand false killer whales which is the research collective’s main study species.
It is the only New Zealand content in the six-episode series about how mammals have adapted and found ways to survive life at the extreme.
Far Out Ocean Research Collective scientist and trustee Jochen Zaeschmar said filming took place over two summers in 2021 and 2022.
It follows Zaeschmar’s previous involvement with the BBC, which filmed false killer whales for its Blue Planet II documentary series in 2017, also narrated by Attenborough.
“They [BBC] decided they wanted to get more stories,” he said.
“Last time ... they didn’t get footage of false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins that we hoped, and we wanted to show them feeding together.
“That never really happened in front of the camera.
“This time we were very successful; we managed to get a camera tag on a whale and got some beautiful footage.”
The filming occurred aboard Zaeschmar’s research vessel Manawanui mostly off the Bream Bay and Tutukaka coasts including around the Hen and Chicken Islands, the Poor Knights Islands, and as far south as Great Barrier Island.
Jochen Zaeschmar from Far Out Ocean Research Collective was stoked to be involved in the BBC’s Mammals series. Photo / Jenny Ling
Eight people were on board, including a cameraman, drone pilot, producer and assistant producer from the BBC UK team, and underwater cameraman Steve Hathaway from Young Ocean Explorers.
Filming during Covid “was tricky but we managed”, Zaeschmar said.
Though usually quite hard to find, the crew “bumped into the whales” the day before the official shoot started which was “a great start to the whole thing”.
“There were good moments, of whales and dolphins working together to round up hundreds of kingfish, then we had another encounter with them doing the same thing with kahawai.
“We got beautiful footage of that, underwater and from the drone.”
A false killer whale breaching off the Mokohinau Islands.
Zaeschmar has been researching false killer whales - a species of oceanic dolphin that can live up to 60 years in the wild – for 25 years.
They are one of the lesser-known cetaceans and are often confused with the more common pilot whales.
Another highlight during the eight weeks of filming - which was condensed into six minutes of footage for the documentary episode - was getting a camera tag on two of the whales, which provided insights into their fishing and foraging behaviour.
This allowed them to witness whales and oceanic bottlenose dolphins sharing food, which usually only happens between the same species.
“We’ve known they fish together but we weren’t so sure whether it was a real co-operation or whether one was taking advantage of the other,” Zaeschmar said.
“They really work together, they do food-share.
“One of the interesting things we learned was that the whales dive straight to the bottom and search for fish.
“When one of them didn’t quite catch the fish, on its way up it bumped into two dolphins, and one of them had a fish and gave it to him.
“It was great to see even though he [the whale] was unsuccessful he got a fish from one of his mates.
“It’s amazing what happens down there.”
False killers whales and bottlenose dolphins herding kingfish. Photo / BBC
Zaeschmar said filming with the BBC was great from a research perspective, “because we don’t have the means and funds to spend weeks searching for them”.
“From that, we got lots of data ... so we learned a lot about their group structure, and it confirmed what we know, that these groups are really stable, and they’re together for pretty much their whole lives.
“We got some nice aerial footage which helps us work out how they move and what they do - those things you can’t see so well from the boat.”
Zaeschmar was also rapt with the first false killer whale sighting of the year.
Moby was one of the first and most distinctive false killer whales to be identified in February 2005 as part of the team’s long-term monitoring of the population.
“We identified her 20 years ago and she’s still around,” Zaeschmar said.
“Moby and her group were speeding up the coast towards the Bay of Islands where they were reported only two hours after passing Tutukaka, averaging 30km per hour.
“That is fast, even by false killer whale standards.”
Filming from the support vessel Sharkbait.
Mammals screens on TVNZ on January 12 at 7.30pm.
If you spot any false killer whales while out on the water, report the sighting to 0800 FAR OUT (0800 327 688).
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with roading, lifestyle, business, and animal welfare issues.
