A juvenile but gigantic humpback whale could come to a beach near you after being washed up on a remote beach in Dunedin by a seven-year-old.
Archie Dennis-Milne, who lives in Omimi near Warrington, said he found the dead whale on a remote beach when he went to see a problem with his family’s electric fence on Friday.
With his mother, Nicola Dennis, he went down and examined the large dead cetaceans, which smelled like fish, Archie said.
It was a bit of a struggle to get to the beach to take a look, and after identifying it, they notified the Department of Conservation (Doc) of the find.
Archie had never seen a whale on the shore, but the large marine mammal was only the second weirdest find to have washed ashore.
His strangest find was a golf ball, he said.
dr. Dennis said a dead sea lion and part of a kayak had also washed up over the years, along with many jandals.
Doc biodiversity ranger Jim Fyfe said the 9.7-meter-long humpback whale was likely a juvenile that had been dead for at least 10 days.
Fully grown humpback whales tended to grow to between 12 and 16 meters in length.
The whale was first reported when it drifted off the coast of Warrington on Friday, July 15.
However, the whale’s bloated condition suggested it could have been dead longer.
A DNA sample was taken from the carcass, along with photographs and a full set of measurements.
The cause of death was unclear, Mr Fyfe said.
Humpback whales tended to visit the coast around Dunedin between May and July as they migrated from Antarctica to warmer waters.
Mr. Fyfe visited the whale today with Kane Fleury, assistant natural sciences collection manager at the Otago Museum and Brendan Flack, chairman of the East Otago Taiapure management committee.
Seeing the creature up close was “pretty special,” Mr Fyfe said.
Although he had been involved in coastal protection for about three decades, he could not recall seeing any washed up whales before, as these rarely washed ashore.
Big waves and severe weather were expected Wednesday and it was likely that the whale would wash back out to sea.
But it was possible it would show up on another beach – either a long way away, or in the next bay, Mr. Fyfe said.