KILLER WHALE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23521, 5 December 1939, Page 10

KILLER WHALE

OFF NORTH SHORE BEACH REPEATED LEAPS IN AIR A SAVAGE SEA HUNTER Repeatedly leaping straight into the air, a killer whale, apparently from 20ft. to 2oft. in length, was observed by Mr. W. B. Powell, assistant-director of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, during the week-end about a mile out from Red Bluff, near.Campbell's Bay, on the North Shore. The leaps were almost vertical, and on each occasion about two-thirds of the length of the whale was disclosed. As it disappeared after each leap there was a seething mass of water, and the circle of white would widen and then fade before the killer shot upward again. Closely observing the spectacle were the occupants of a small launch a quarter of a mile away. Whether or not they were aware of the identity of the killer, or that its leaps were for the purpose of spotting a likely prey, is not known. Mr. Powell does not suggest they were in any danger, but it is recalled that on one, occasion Mr. Herbert Ponting, the well-known photographer of an Antarctic expedition, had to beat a hasty retreat from an ice floe because killer whales had seen him and started to break up the ice on which he stood.

While killer whales, described as the most savage and ruthless hunters of the sea, are abundant in the Antarctic seas, where they hunt and ravage the other species of whales and also smash up or tilt floes in order to destroy luckless seals which may have taken refuge on them, they make appearances in other waters. They are sometimes reported about this time of the year in the Hauraki Gulf, being apparently then engaged on a seasonal migration.