Rare whales found dead on far north beach

Seven rare Gray's beaked whales have died in a stranding on a Northland beach.

The four adults and three calves were found by Department of Conservation (DoC) Te Paki staff at Waikuku Beach near North Cape on Sunday but they were badly decomposed and DoC staff believe they may have been there a week.

DoC said it was the largest recorded mass stranding of Gray's beaked whales on mainland New Zealand. Other mass strandings had happened on the Chatham Islands.

DoC ranger Niki Conrad said in a statement whale strandings were always emotional, especially when the whales were dead.

Patrick Whaley, DoC's programme manager biodiversity assets, said whale strandings were common in this area but until now they had found only one or two individual Gray's beaked whales.

Samples of the whales were to be sent to Te Papa for analysis, as very little was currently known about the rare species, DoC said.

- NZPA