Sperm whale stands on Paraparaumu Beach, NZ

A sperm whale washed up on Paraparaumu Beach overnight attracting crowds of onlookers.
A DOC spokesman said they were hoping to move the whale up the beach using diggers today, as the tide washing in would start to bury it in the beach.

The carcass had now been cordoned by Kapiti Coast District Council due to health risks.
more here .....................

This was a couple of km north of where I live.
Drove by on the way to work to have a look, big traffic jam, so gave it a miss.

it never stood up.. it just lay there... dead.

i was expecting to see footage of a whale standing up on its tail personlike!

(:

Seems to be numerous whales beaching across the globe.
I wonder if it's health related or man causing this with sonar or something.
Or earthquake related.
Thanks for sharing your story,muzzy.

I also thought it was standing on end!

I was thinking something was very very wrong in the world for that to happen.

Thank you for putting thus up though. I hate to see this happen to such beautiful animals.

reply to post by muzzy


Oh, sperm whale stranded. I was expecting to see one standing on a beach in Paraparaumu, NZ. How sad, would have been a happier tale if the whale was standing instead.

What ever you do, do not use explosive like they did in the state of Oregon in the 70's...

Originally posted by kdog1982
Seems to be numerous whales beaching across the globe.
I wonder if it's health related or man causing this with sonar or something.
Or earthquake related.
Thanks for sharing your story,muzzy.

Take your pick... radiated water, oiled water, plastic pollution, who knows what chemicals...

poisoned whale food (mainly squid for this whale, the squid eats smaller fish, which eat smaller organisms etc.)

You could be onto something about sonar as well, or other electromagnetic reasons perhaps? Though to drive a creature to death it would have to be an issue for a long time at high "doses" in my opinion.

All so often we hear about whale/dolphin deaths on the media, but does the media ever release any reasons post-autopsy of these amazing mammals? Is there a reason that is not being told?

standing whales! ha! ha! what'll you people think of next!

Sad, very sad.

This is an unacceptable situation.

I've spent the better part of 25 years at sea and remain convinced it has something to do with Sonar or yet to be disclosed technology being used.

It's not good enough we rape the earth, we've gotta rip into the ocean as well.

Don't make me pull up vids of dolphins and whales interacting with us.

NOT ON MY WATCH............

reply to post by Sublimecraft


I hate to see all of the beautiful creatures on the beach dying. Even worse when they come in groups.

However, after pondering this for a few years, I believe that some of it is just natural. Take for instance this case,

In 1833 or 1834 this tension turned into a full fledged conflict in a dispute over a beached whale.

en.wikipedia.org...

And this site has even older claims, (along with a terrible story about hunting the whales).

Māori consider a beached whale a taonga (treasure) developing rich traditions around strandings. Before the arrival of the early European whalers in New Zealand, Māori did not hunt large whales, but profitted from these strandings as gifts of the sea, having therefore a minimal impact on whale populations.

whales.fieldmuseum.org...

So, some are not man's interference IMO, just natural cause. Though I would really love to know those natural causes.

I am sure that we have something to do with mass die offs, I just haven't been able to put my finger on it.

reply to post by hashslinger
I have not laughed that hard at something sooooo stupid in a long time. The look on that old man s face looking at his smashed car is absolutely priceless.

reply to post by hashslinger


Oh My Gosh! They blew up the whale!! I've never heard about this. What were they thinking??

reply to post by Doodle19815


Agreed - indeed a small percentage can be attributed to natural occurrences.

My beef is when it happens in unorthodox large numbers.

I just decided to vent this morning as a consequence.

Sorry about the miss-spelling in the title, obviously it was supposed to be "strands".
It may have been misleading anyway, stranding usually means the whale was still alive, in this case it may have died at sea and been washed ashore on the high tide which was just after midnight.

The fisherman saying he had seen a whale thrashing about in the channel between the island is interesting, no one else reported seeing anything, a lot of people live along the coast and no doubt scan the coast every day.

This area does have a lot of whale traffic going through Cook Strait, crossing from the Tasman Sea through to the Pacific Ocean on the east side, they are going down to Kaikoura where there is good feeding in the Kaikoura Canyon.
Kapiti Island had a whaling station in the early European settlement period.

I'll keep an eye on the local media and see what they end up doing with the carcass. Where it is located is a popular place for locals to swim, boat launch and picnic, its right off the end of the village shopping centre and public park, so I can't imagine them digging a big hole and burying it right there due to the chance it could later become exposed.
In that vid on the DomPost link I wonder what the woman was thinking throwing sand on the whales jaw

It should be noted that it is around this time of year that there are usually strandings across the other side of Cook Strait, in the Farewell Spit area, it seems to happen every year, although a different species of whale.
www.strandings.blogspot.co.nz...
www.nzherald.co.nz...
en.wikipedia.org...



this is probably worth a read
The New Zealand Whale Stranding Data Base (NZWSDB) was set up in association with the Department of Conservation. The NZWSDB contains 1140 records of whale strandings involving a total of 8287 individuals, 35 species, 163 herd strandings, and 304 known live strandings .............. pdf.
ir.canterbury.ac.nz...

Was on the radio this morning, they have moved the carcass to Queen Elizabeth Park for burial, didn't say if it would be on/under the beach or in the sand dunes.

reply to post by muzzy


So sad.
Wouldn't have been better to drag it far out to sea as a natural burial?

Peace,
K

Just wanted to pop in and leave this link.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I see absolutely nothing wrong with the Maori tradition. I think it is a wonderful thing that they are able to practice it.

reply to post by kdog1982


Not many boats that would be big enough on this side of the coast, would need a tug boat. Who's going to pay?
Always the chance it would wash back ashore, the currents are horrendous through Cook Strait.
There was a diver got lost here a few years back he was sweep up and down along the coast for 4 days before they found him.

My thoughts about the burial are, perhaps in a 1000 years some one will dig up the bones and speculate as to why a 15 metre whale is 1/4 mile in land from the sea

reply to post by Doodle19815

If they were weak stomached why did they even go down there?
Anything dead is bound to be unpleasant.
Note the Maori took the jaw but left it to the Regional Council (us taxpayers $) to ditch the carcass.
Its called "selective customary rights".