A new and ecologically-friendly way of disposing of whale carcasses is being explored by the Department of Conservation (DOC) following the death of around 140 pilot whales over the weekend.
A pod of 200 of the whales stranded near Farewell Spit on Friday, of which only around 60 managed to be refloated successfully.
The remoteness of the area and inability for heavy machinery to get to the bodies means DOC has to find another way to get rid of "300 tonnes of whale".
DOC Golden Bay conservation services manager Andrew Lamason said staff are assessing the practicality of tethering the whales in the intertidal zone to "let the ecosystem work its magic".
Tethering the bodies would mean they would be exposed at low tide and float at high tide but won't drift too far.
"I don't think we'd be too popular with the good people of Wellington if we send a whole lot of whale carcasses their way," he said.
This is only the second time the technique could be used in New Zealand, and would be the biggest operation.
In November, three sperm whales washed up dead at a popular tourist spot of Pohara Beach in Golden Bay.
They were dragged from the beach to Farewell Spit and tied to a mussel anchor used in the marine industry by their tail flukes and left in the ocean to decompose.
"The anchor holds them in that position; the whales can swing around a bit on the tide and that worked incredibly well. We went from these huge, big rotting masses of whales to nothing except for the skull in 12 weeks."
The idea was born out of necessity, he said.
"There was no way we could leave them there.
"We couldn't drag it up to the land because there's houses and golf courses there, so we had to do something different and that's what we tried."
The practice could be used to replace the current method of burying whales, which has a detrimental effect on the surrounding earth and requires much more effort, Mr Lamason says.
"In the past we've tried burying sperm whales. Twenty years later, the ground is still showing signs of the thing being buried. It kills off all the soil; nothing on land is built to process these things."
Farewell Spit is a trap for pilot whales and other species, with at least several strandings each summer.
Mr Lamason says that's a gift and a curse.
"In terms of causing strandings, Farewell Spit is a curse, but when you're dealing with carcasses it's an absolute blessing."
If the whales can be tethered they will be around 7km from where the public can access and in the middle of a nature reserve.
But there are no guarantees the untried method will work because it's unknown whether the bodies will decompose and break off from the tether.
However, staff would be watching the progress closely and adapt to the situation if they need to.
The pilot whales have already begun to decompose with the combination of the fat in their bodies, black skin and a "stunning Golden Bay day", causing their intestines to begin exploding.
Mr Lamason said no necropsies will be done on the whales because there are no unique circumstances around their deaths in terms of their species, timing and the area they stranded.
However, around 80 biopsy samples have been taken to determine where the pod has come from and their relationships to each other.
3 News
source: newshub archive
