DOC searching for rope-entangled whale

The whale, with green rope around it. Photo / Department of Conservation

Department of Conservation staff will attempt to remove ropes entangled around a humpback whale seen in Doubtless Bay - if they can find it.

The seven metre-long whale was seen with rope wrapped around it near Mangonui in the Far North about 11.30am yesterday.

DOC spokesperson Caroline Smith said this morning the whale was proving elusive and had still not been found.

"A plane is up and a boat is out there looking," she said.

"It is somewhat like looking for a needle in a haystack, as we're only looking for the spout.

"If we don't find it chances are it will be found by the department further south as it is migrating."

Ms Smith said whales often became caught in ropes as they were curious animals. In the past decade 10 humpbacks had become tangled in ropes, eight of which were tangled in crayfishing ropes, she said.

Once the whale had been located, DOC rangers from Kaitaia and Kaikoura would head out by boat, with Ingrid Visser of the Tutukaka-based Orca Research Trust, in a bid to free it.

The technique used to remove the rope is called kegging. A boat will get as close as possible to the mammal and crew will attach a grapnel hook to the rope. Attached to the hook would be 10m of rope connected to a ring. From the ring is another 50m of rope.

Kegging should tire the whale, which will allow crew to cut away the rope entangled around the whale as safely as possible.

Ms Smith said the technique was dangerous for staff and relatively new, having been used by DOC since only 2008.

DOC's Kaikoura field centre supervisor Mike Morrissey, who has used the kegging technique before, has flown up to assist.

The latest whale crisis comes only days after at least 70 pilot whales stranded on Spirits Bay in the Far North. After the survivors were driven an hour south to Rarawa Beach, 14 were saved.