Stranded whale: 'We hope it's off swimming in deep water'

Volunteers attend the Antarctic minke whale at Pt Chevalier. Photo / Dean Purcell

A minke whale that beached itself on an Auckland beach yesterday does not appear to have re-stranded today.

Both the Department of Conservation (DoC) and whale rescue group Project Jonah said they had not received any reports of the whale re-stranding today.

The female Antarctic minke whale was last seen swimming out to sea from the Auckland harbour yesterday afternoon.

Volunteers converge at Pt Chevalier to assist the Antarctic minke whale. Photo / Dean Purcell

It had earlier stranded itself on a sand bank at Pt Chevalier yesterday morning and remained there until the water was deep enough for it to swim away about 2.30pm.

DoC spokesman Nick Hirst said there had no been further information of the whale re-stranding, but DoC were ready to respond if it happened today.

Project Jonah general manager Daren Grover said they hadn't been alerted to any strandings this morning.

Brent Goldingham with his dog Bella and Chris Petrie make their way to dry land after helping the whale. Photo / Dean Purcell

"We left it at high tide yesterday and it was swimming in deep water just far from the Harbour Bridge."

Mr Grover had been down to Pt Chevalier this morning to check for any sign of the whale, but hadn't seen anything.

"We just really hope its off swimming about in deep water," he said.

Interested locals head to the beach for a closer look. Photo / Dean Purcell

The public was on "high alert", he said, and he was confident he would hear if the whale did end up in trouble again today.

Auckland University marine biologist Rochelle Constantine was at the sand bank yesterday working with DoC, Project Jonah and members of the public to re-float the whale.

She was pretty sure it was the same one spotted around Auckland on Tuesday.

"It's not a normal place for the whale to be. It should be in Antarctica. Every now and again they do come up past New Zealand but a few of them over the last 20 years or so have come into the harbour, but it's certainly not normal behaviour."

Typically the species would travel in small groups or alone and swimming into Auckland's harbour could be a sign something was wrong, Dr Constantine said.

"It looks alright on the outside. It's not got any injuries or anything external that we can see and it was breathing strongly. We would like to think it would make it out. We've been doing our best to herd it in the right direction.

"Every now and again it takes a wrong turn and we try and get it on course. We remain optimistic."

Zainab Aziz, 12, was one of the first to spot it.

She said her dad was working on a construction site nearby and alerted her to it.

Zainab said it looked like a really big rock, but then she realised it was the whale and went down and waited with it for help to arrive.

A Newstalk ZB caller who was following the whale said an expert dived under the water with the whale and she instantly got moving, responding to his touch.

The caller said the whale had been lying there doing nothing until then, and then it powered out to sea.

One of the volunteers helping out said they kept bucketing water over the animal to make sure it didn't dry out.

A tour group close to the Riverhead Tavern on the upper Waitemata Harbour saw the whale come in on Tuesday.

It appeared to be attempting to catch fish in the shallow waters of the Rangitopuni Creek, a long narrow inlet, The Red Boats Ltd managing director Andrew Somers said.

"We were departing on our return trip from Riverhead ... we were leaving because the tide was going out and we had to go. I went up front to untie the line and I felt this big wave, and sort of looked around expecting to see a big boat go flying past, and sitting behind us was a big whale."