Humpback whale baby a first in NZ waters

NADINE BOTT

HELLO, BABY: A humpback whale calf, estimated to be only two days old, swims beside its mother in Tory Channel.

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A baby humpback whale has been reported swimming in New Zealand waters for the first time.

The calf, estimated to be two days old and four metres long, was spotted by Conservation Department staff and volunteers on Sunday in Tory Channel.

DOC marine ecologist Nadine Bott said humpback whales were currently migrating from Antarctic waters to South Pacific breeding grounds, and the calf had been spotted with its mother.

To be born while the whales were still travelling along New Zealand's east coast indicated the calf had been born prematurely. "They're going up to New Caledonia, it's a long and challenging journey."

Mrs Bott was part of a survey team that stopped their boat when they spotted the pair. The adult whale and its calf came within 15 metres of the boat and the surveyors watched them for about 25 minutes before the whales swam away.

The DOC staff, volunteers and former whalers carry out an annual survey of whales passing through Cook Strait.

Mrs Bott said there had never been any reported sightings of humpback calves in New Zealand, even in the days of whaling.

"Sometimes the whalers got pregnant females who were carrying near-term foetuses, but they never saw newborn calves."

The calf was spotted simultaneously by a former whaler and a pregnant surveyor.

She described the experience as a "special encounter", in which neither mother nor calf appeared concerned by the boat.

The calf needed to come to the surface to breathe more often than an adult, and still had neonatal folds along its body and at the base of its dorsal fin, Mrs Bott said.

The four-week survey ends tomorrow. So far the group has spotted 43 humpback whales.

The survey aims to assess the recovery of the humpback population since commercial whaling stopped. This year was meant to be the last year DOC carried it out, but Mrs Bott said she was unsure whether enough whale samples had been collected over the years, or whether more research would be needed.

So far it suggested humpback whale numbers were "slowly recovering" since the closure of the Tory Channel whaling station in 1964, when the population had fallen so far that the whales no longer passed through.

- © Fairfax NZ News