Bird life was yesterday dining out on the dead whale spotted off d'Urville Island by Nelson man Peter Connolly. Photo/Peter Connolly
Bird life was yesterday dining out on the dead whale spotted off d'Urville Island by Nelson man Peter Connolly. Photo/Peter Connolly
The identity of a massive dead whale seen floating off the coast of Nelson remains unclear.
Nelson man Peter Connolly was on his way back into shore after a day's fishing around Stephens Island, northwest of Nelson, yesterday when one of his crew spotted something unusual in the distance near d'Urville Island.
Initially they thought it was a boat turned upside down but once they got a bit closer they realised it was a dead whale floating in the water.
"It was very large, I would say it's been dead for a little while. There was lots of birds around him."
Connolly, who works at for Sealord, said although it was hard to say, he guessed it could be a blue whale given the big lines on its belly.
The dead whale is highly pungent and bloated and was today seen west of Stephens Island which means it is floating in a northerly direction. Photo/Peter Connolly
"It was pretty big, it was 45-50 feet [17m] long."
He said the smell was "unbearable" but the birds were having a good feed on it.
As for spotting it in the ocean, he said it wasn't unusual to see a dead whale but it was fairly rare to see one floating in Tasman Bay.
"Oh yeah ... it's the first one I have seen in the bay."
He believed the whale should drop to the bottom once the gas was released from its stomach cavity. The next issue from then on would be whether a trawling boat accidentally hauled it out of the water.
"Hopefully no one trawls it up, I have seen them come up in a trawler all decomposed and it's not a very pretty sight."
The dead whale was yesterday spotted near d'Urville Island off the coast of Nelson. Photo/Peter Connolly
To help get the word out he got in touch with the Department of Conservation and Nelson man Troy Dando who manages the Nelson Boating Community page on Facebook.
A DoC spokeswoman said their marine mammal scientists had looked at Connolly's pictures and it believed it was one of three whale species - a blue whale, but possibly a fin or a sei whale.
Dando said the latest report of the whale's location - at 9am today - was 3km off Stephen's Island which meant it was drifting in a northerly direction
"It's still going to be an issue floating around until it hits landfall and then there's a whole lot of northerlies coming in the next few days so it should blow it on to land, somewhere."
It could land anywhere along the coast of the Marlborough Sounds or even back into Tasman Bay down by Nelson.
"The Nelson harbourmaster and Marlborough harbourmaster have put out navigational warnings."
Dando said it could possibly continue to drift into Cook Strait which would mean they'd be less likely to get any further sightings. However, he wouldn't be surprised if they did as it was so big it could be seen up to 6km away.
