KILLER WHALE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 290, 8 December 1939, Page 3

KILLER WHALE

OFF NORTH SHORE BEACH REPEATED LEAPS IN AIR AUCKLAND. Dec. 5. Repeatedly leaping straight into the air, a killer whale, apparently from 2bft. to 25ft. 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 Campbells 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 t ade 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 Io« the purpose of spotting a likely prey, is not known. Mr. Powell does not suggest they were in any danger, but : t is recalled that on one occasion Mr. Herbert Ponting, the well-known photographer of an Antarctic exped’-1 lion, had to beat a hasty retreat from au ice floe because killer whales had seen him and started to break up the ic? 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 does 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 ol the year in the Hauraki Gulf, being apparently then engaged on a seasonal migration.