Headless whale found

Press, 20 February 1988, Page 1

Headless whale found

By TONY SMITH in Nelson A macabre souvenir hunter may have severed the head of a decomposed rare whale washed up on a beach near Motueka. Department of Conservation staff found a headless 5m Scamperdown beaked whale on the beach at Kina Peninsula on Thursday. A senior conservation officer, Mr Len Edwards, said, “It looks like someone beat us to it and removed the head. At first we suspected it had been eaten away by sea lice and other creatures, but now we believe someone cut off the head and some of the fins.” Mr Edwards said the head of a Scamperdown whale was about a metre long and the size of a “big cow’s head.” He said he did not know what anyone would do with the whale’s head but its teeth and bone might be kept as souvenirs. The whale was badly decomposed and the head would not be

suitable for mounting Departmental staff believed the removal of a whale's head was an offence under the Conservation Act. “People should really leave them alone so that we can autopsy them,” Mr Edwards said. "Samples could be taken from the head for testing for parasites and the whale can be aged by checking its teeth,” he said. The whale was first noticed floating in the shallows off Kina Peninsula on Wednesday. It was later found partially buried The carcase had been attacked by sea lice, the tail section through to the backbone being eaten away. A ditch-digger was used to bury the whale on the beach. Mr Edwards said the whale was almost certainly one of the 15 beaked Scamperdowns rescued last week after being stranded in shallow water off Ruby Bay, south of Kina Peninsula.