A large pod (Pilot Whales) stranded here last week; the majority were fortunately saved.
The NZ Department of Conservation and volunteers have done a marvelous job in salvaging something from this tragedy (over and above saving the majority of them), and saw to it that the stomach's of a number of specimens were sampled, the contents saved and soon-to-be
en route to us for more detailed examination. I was unable to get down, as this had been a rather busy time up here.
In the attached press release I note (with interest) that the stomachs are reported to be 'empty', and they were, largely so (sounds familiar doesn't it; we're looking at this in sperm whales and pygmy sperm whales also), but in discussions with those that extracted the contents, there are a few squid beaks and parasites within (maybe from 7 specimens; at least 2 were empty). Previously we had no information on the diet of this whale in NZ waters, which is quite bizarre given their mass-stranding nature. As soon as we get the beaks post Christmas (a terrible time with university and Department/Ministry close downs, but the time I get the most done because there are no disturbances) we'll be able to post something online. We had only anecdotal information that these whales ate fish in NZ waters .... but to the best of my knowledge there were no fish remains amongst the contents.
The following copy/pasted from this link
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3521131a11,00.html
Volunteers bury 24 whales
23 December 2005
By HELEN MURDOCH
Kaumatua Te Aroha (Losa) Holmwood prayed and cried as 24 of the pilot whales that stranded on Puponga beach were buried.
The mass grave lies within sight and sound of the sea at the base of Farewell Spit, the notorious sandy arm which has trapped so many marine mammals in the past.
But while the digger gently shifted the sand dune over the mammals' grave yesterday, 100-plus whales saved by a mass of volunteers swam powerfully out to sea.
"The whales have feeling for each other, if one gets sick or hurt they follow it in to shore," said Holmwood.
"Then all the people come out and nurse and bathe them so they can get back out to sea, but unfortunately these ones did not go back."
The incoming tide lapping piles of excavated sand off Puponga beach, in a second rescue effort, was the only sign yesterday of this week's massive effort to save some 120 long-finned pilot whales which stranded high on the intertidal shore on Tuesday.
Across from the beach, in the campground of Farewell Gardens Holiday Park, British visitor Kulbir Dhingra marvelled at his unexpected brush with the mammals.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHe and his family arrived to find Puponga packed with cars and people.
"I've never experienced anything like it, we spent the whole day helping. They are very gentle and respond when you pour water over them," Dhingra said.
"It was an amazing vibe and I felt like I was doing something useful and important.
"And so many people came from so far away – the community effort was incredible."
The family's decision to go to yesterday's burial was simple, he said.
"We had to get closure on it."
The Golden Bay Department of Conservation whale co-ordinator Simon Walls, meanwhile, looked exhausted, but happy so many whales could be saved.
He has managed three major rescue operations in as many days.
The main effort to refloat the stranded whales was a marathon effort, with 300-plus volunteers and DOC staff from as far away as Nelson working together and patiently waiting for the tide.
"People are the powerhouse of a refloating. We just co-ordinate things behind the scenes," Walls said.
By 5pm they had got the whales bunched together in chest-deep water. Then they had to wait for the stressed mammals to recover enough to start swimming.
"If you put your head under the water it was buzzing with whale communication," Walls said. "It seemed to take forever to rally and find a sense of direction, then they literally got into a formation, formed a line about a kilometre long and started to head out."
Boats stayed with the pod until the wind raised the sea to a rough chop, then a splinter group of 50 curved back to shore, about 5km south of Puponga, he said.
Volunteers who were still at hand moved rapidly to the new site and quickly turned the whales around, using belly slings and sheer muscle, herding them back out to sea.
Early yesterday morning the whales were spotted by plane moving back towards shore, this time near the Rototai bar, on the southern side of Golden Bay.
DOC workers moved quickly and stopped them and turned them in a metre of water before they beached.
Dissection of the dead whales showed their stomachs were empty, said Walls.
Walls said the stranding scenario could not have been much worse.
The whales were very high on Puponga's long intertidal beach, inside the shelter of Puponga Point and the tides were very poor. The site of the stranding was a long way from urban populations of volunteers, he said.
"Still we didn't lose any people and we didn't lose too many whales. It's better than the bad old days when stranded whales were just shot, or totally ignored."