Southern right whale spotted

Public asked to report sightings

THE Department of Conservation is encouraging the North Otago community to keep an eye out for southern right whales and report any sightings.

Yesterday afternoon, Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony staff and members of the public reported sightings of a whale about 500m off the coast of Oamaru.

At this time of year, there was ‘‘a good chance’’ it would have been a southern right whale, Department of Conservation (Doc) coastal biodiversity ranger Jim Fyfe said.

But until photos were received, or more sightings were reported to Doc, he could not say for sure.

‘‘Photos are always good; the southern right whales are quite distinctive in that they’ve got a doublelobed [blowhole], so rather than being straight up and down single spouttype blow . . . there’s a distinct Vshaped [spray],’’ he said.

The southern right whale could also be easily recognised by its strongly arched mouth and lack of dorsal fin.

During the breeding season in winter and spring, southern right whales were mostly found in the waters around the subantarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands, but there were occasional sightings around mainland New Zealand.

It was ‘‘good to hear’’ there had been a sighting off the Oamaru coast yesterday, Mr Fyfe said.

‘‘We haven’t had a lot of southern right whale sightings this winter, which is surprising. Usually, we’d get more than we have,’’ he said.

He encouraged anyone who saw the whale off the coast of Oamaru yesterday to report it to Doc. It was valuable information to help increase Doc’s knowledge of whale distribution and movements around New Zealand.

Whale sightings can be reported to Doc’s conservation hotline on 0800 DOCHOT (0800 362 468) or online at doc.govt.nz/ marinemammalsightings.