Introduction

New Zealanders have been familiar with whales and dolphins since our islands were first settled: Maori mythology tells of the origin of whales and dolphins from Te Pu-Whakahara, a direct offspring of the Sky Parent and the Earth Mother; and indeed, the early Maoris looked upon the stranding of a whale as a gift from the Gods, as it provided bounteous food and bones for implement making. Seafaring Maoris regarded whales and dolphins as super-normal creatures and relied on them as guardians of canoes on long voyages, and as succours of distressed mariners.

In recent times, New Zealanders along with other peoples, have had a commercial interest in the whales found in our waters, but nowadays interest in the animals is mainly scientific and recreational, and can be pursued from a poolside at a marineland, the deck of a ship, or in the case of stranded whales, from direct examination. Viewing whales and dolphins alive and at such close quarters cannot fail to arouse interest in their way of life and remarkable adaptations to living in the sea, as well as to their identity.

This booklet contains general information on the biology of whales and dolphins, and provides illustrations and descriptions of species which live in New Zealand waters. The information here should help seafarers and beachcombers to identify living and stranded animals, collect relevant data, and I hope, inspire them to report their finds to scientific institutions.

Whales and dolphins are collectively called cetaceans, from the Greek ketos, a whale. There are two groups of cetaceans — those with teeth (Order Odontoceti) and those without teeth (Order Mysticeti) (Fig. 1). The toothed cetaceans are the sperm whales, beaked whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The terms ‘dolphin’ and ‘porpoise’ are often used interchangeably; strictly speaking, those animals with a long beak and pointed teeth should be called dolphins, and those with no beak and spade-shaped teeth porpoises. Toothed whales (including dolphins) range from 4ft to 60ft in length, and the smaller kinds can be tamed and trained. They are not deliberately harmful to man, and exhibit very high intelligence and excellent physical coordination. They feed on fishes, squids, and (the Killer Whale) on other marine mammals.

The Mysticeti are the baleen or whalebone whales — Right Whales, and Finners or Rorquals. Instead of teeth, these whales have hundreds of thin, horny, ‘baleen plates’ attached to their upper jaws (Fig. 1). The plates have bristly inner edges which intertwine to form a filtering mechanism for trapping huge quantities of planktonic krill — the tiny shrimp-like creatures on which baleen whales feed. Mysticetes range from 20ft to 100ft in length, and because of their specialised feeding habits cannot be kept long in captivity.

Eight species of baleen whales and twenty-three species of toothed whales are thought to live in the waters around New Zealand. Some page 5

Figure 1: Skulls and jaws of the two groups of whales.

page 6 (Shepherd's Beaked Whale and the Southern Right Whale Dolphin) are exceedingly rare, while the occurence of others (e.g. the Spotted Dolphin and the Black Finless Porpoise) remains to be confirmed by the capture or stranding of actual specimens.

From about 1800 New Zealand was the base for many foreign whaling ships which hunted Sperm Whales between northern New Zealand and the Kermadec Islands, and Right Whales offshore and close to the coast. About 1830, a number of shore-based whaling stations were set up along the southern and eastern coasts of both North and South Islands, and Right Whales plus a few Humpbacks were hunted by local New Zealanders. Spermaceti oil, blubber oil, baleen, and ambergris were the valuable products extracted from the whales.

After 1850 whaling declined steadily due to the heavy depletion of stocks, and only a few were caught each year by the shore stations. Mechanised shore stations were developed at Whangamumu and Tory Channel soon after 1900, and a station started on Great Barrier Island in 1956. Whangamumu closed in 1931 and the others followed during the 1960s because of declining numbers of Humpback Whales and falling world prices for whale oil.