Right whales visit Te Waewae Bay

Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 1, 1 February 1991, Page 2

Right whales visit Te Waewae Bay

Tim Higham

OUTHERN RIGHT WHALES, mercilessly hunted to the brink of extinction midlast century, may be on the increase. For the first time in living memory a pod of about 10 of the great cetaceans took up residence in Southland’s Te Waewae Bay during July and August. Department of Conservation conservation officer Andy Cox says the whales appear to have moved into the bay for breeding. Several sitings of southern right whales are usually reported along the New Zealand coast during spring, but according to Tuatapere fisher Les Chandler it is the first time he has seen large whales in Te Waewae Bay in ten year’s fishing. Between 1843 and 1846 more than 100 shore whaling stations along the coast hunted the whale. It was given the name "right" because it was easily reached by rowboat, swam slowly, floated when dead and yielded large quantities of oil and long baleen. The species is distinctive because of the white callosities raised patches of rough skin usually infested with parasitic worms, whale lice and barnacles which cover the snout. The total world population of southern right whales is estimated at only 3000. #&