Orca sightings in local waters thrill for Kiwis
Orca whales thrilled Kiwis at the weekend with sightings reported near Whanga¯rei and Whanganui.
For the first time in eight years, a pod of orca whales was spotted in the shallows of Marsden Cove Marina in pursuit of a feast of stingray.
In the weekend’s “foul weather”, whale researcher and scientist Dr Ingrid Visser says “we got very lucky to catch a blow off in the distance”.
At 3pm on Sunday, a tug-boat reported seeing the pod of nine make its way into the narrow channel.
The pod spent 30 minutes hunting stingray in the marina in company of the Marsden community that arrived to catch a rare glimpse of the wildlife.
Four more of the whales kept their distance, coming in only as far as the harbour.
Rob van Gelder, a Marsden Cove resident of 15 years, says he spotted pods of orca at Marsden Cove once or twice a year.
He also hasn’t seen a pod of this size in the marina for about 10 years.
Further south, people at Whanganui’s Castlecliff Beach were excited to see a pod of 20 to 30 orca on Sunday afternoon — and people lined up yesterday in the hope of spotting them again.
Suzanne Perrin, who has lived in Castlecliff since 1977, said she thought she was hallucinating when she saw at least 20 orca swimming around the river mouth at North Mole.
Perrin said she tried to take photos but, geared with a new camera and the murky conditions, wasn’t able to get a clean shot. “They weren’t coming out. The water was quite brown and was very turbulent. There must have been fish underneath.”
A former environment teacher at Aranui School, Perrin couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “One was so big he couldn’t come close to shore.”
The Orca Research Trust currently identifies and traces more than 60 of the 200 orca around the NZ coast on its trust site orcaresearch.org.
The trust’s 2020 ID guide exhibits the easily identifiable characteristics of orca in New Zealand waters that can be matched with your own photos.
To help plot orcas’ speed, movement and direction of travel, Visser encourages you to call 0800 SEE ORCA (0800 733 6722).