Rise in whale sightings sparks wider survey
Annual Cook Strait whale surveyors have blitzed the previous record count, and prompted organisers to expand the survey to cover the entire whale migratory period next year.
The tally by former whalers, Conservation Department staff and volunteer whale-spotters reached whale No 102 on Sunday afternoon as part of DOC’s ninth annual Cook Strait whale survey, which runs from June 9 to July 6.
The figure has already surpassed last year’s record of 73 and convinced organisers to extend next year’s survey to cover the humpback whale’s entire migratory period from the start of June to the end of August.
It is not yet clear why the numbers are so high.
DOC staff, former whalers and volunteers spend every day from dawn to dusk in a hut near Okukari Bay on Arapawa Island, in Queen Charlotte Sound, to monitor the number of whales passing through Cook Strait.
The whales are making their annual migration north from feeding grounds in waters around Antarctica to breeding areas in the South Pacific.
The survey monitors the recovery of humpback whale numbers since the end of commercial whaling in New Zealand in 1964.
DOC whale survey project manager Nadine Bott said the high number of whales sighted this year demanded a wider survey period to achieve a clearer count in Cook Strait.
‘‘We have had so few resightings that we want to do a total survey.
‘‘The timing of it had been determined by the historical peaks seen by former whalers – the last two weeks of June and the first two of July – but we’ve seen that there can be peaks around it.’’
Surveyors needed to cover the entire migratory period to gain a more accurate record of how many whales travelled through Cook Strait and when.
Whale migration had occurred a lot earlier this year, both here and near Australia, where whales were spotted in April. They were not normally expected until May.
‘‘I would like to think this year’s high numbers are the result of recovery, but we might have just had lucky timing. Next year should give us a bigger picture.’’
Former whalers would continue to cover Cook Strait for one month, with the remaining two months being filled by volunteers.