Dead whale's life analysed | Northland News | Local News in Northland

A sperm whale that died after being stranded on Coopers Beach will be examined by university experts.

The whale, which was 12m long and stuck in shallows about 20m off shore, died around 10pm on Monday night, despite efforts by volunteers and Department of Conservation staff to coax it back out to sea.

At low tide on Tuesday, a 20-tonne digger loaded the whale on to a truck for transport to the Kenana Te Rangi Nui marae where Ngati Kahu recovered cultural materials such as the jawbone and teeth.

Ngatiwai kaumatua Hori Parata, an expert in tikanga relating to stranded whales, said yesterday the meat would be destroyed while its bones would be set aside for cultural purposes.

The whale will then be buried according to Maori protocol.

Emma Beatson, researcher at AUT's School of Applied Sciences, is working with DoC and local iwi to collect post-mortem samples to assess the whale's life history, genetics, toxicology and diet.

Beatson's PhD on cetacean biology and conservation focuses on the ecology and life history of the long-finned pilot whale Globicephala melas, although her expertise extends to many other cetacean species in New Zealand waters. She has conducted research on the diet of pygmy sperm whales, which have stranded, and on the diets of toothed whales that have stranded or been caught as fisheries bycatch in New Zealand waters. She is also researching the diets of Hector's and Maui's dolphins.

Rescuers placed a net behind the whale and a boat at either end, one a DoC patrol boat, the other Far North Coastguard Radio's rescue boat, keeping the net taut to stop the dying whale from being dragged further up the beach by the incoming tide.

Volunteers kept it oriented out to sea in the hope it would be able to free itself as the tide rose. Rescuers had to contend with driving rain, choppy seas and a 20-knot onshore wind.