Dead Orca carcass off New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand

JOHN ANTHONY

Fairfax NZ News

11/02/2012

Boaties are being asked to keep an eye out for a shark-ravaged orca carcass bobbing off the coast of Taranaki.

Conservation Department officer Bryan Williams said the dead mammal, believed to be an orca, was first spotted four days ago.

DOC‘s attempts to track down the floating mass had been unsuccessful.

Boaties were being asked to take a co-ordinate reading and phone the Coastguard if they spotted it.

“We’ve had a couple of calls and been given co-ordinates and haven’t been able to get out there straight away,” Mr Williams said.

The orca, or killer whale, was first seen in 60 metres of water off Bell Block. A second sighting was in 40m of water straight out from the Wind Wand in New Plymouth.

The reports said shark bites were visible on the carcass, he said.

“Sharks enjoy having a chomp on them. This time of year we have a lot of mako sharks out there and they get quite large.”

The corpse would be semi-submerged, he said.

Taranaki Coastguard skipper Graham Cowling said a large dead whale could pose a threat to unsuspecting boaties.

“It could do some quite serious damage depending on how fast the vessel is going,” Mr Cowling said.

People should avoid getting too close to the carcass, he said.

Instead, boaties should mark the site on their global positioning satellite and report it to authorities immediately.

The last dead floating whale to be dealt with in Taranaki was a sperm whale about four years ago, Mr Williams said.

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