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TODD NIALL / Things
The whale was pulled out of the water and brought to the dock.
A whale died after being trapped under a jetty at Hobsonville Point in Auckland.
Project Jonah marine mammal rescue charity general manager Daren Grover said a member of the public saw the whale struggling under the jetty around 2 p.m. and unable to get out.
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A crowd of around 12 people gathered at the jetty in Auckland’s Hobsonville Pt to help the whale.
“We were called to the scene together with the Department of Conservation (DOC), but unfortunately, even though we were there in half an hour, the whale had already died.”
Grover said the whale would have been very distressed and had been cut by shells at the bottom of the jetty.
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“I’ve never heard of a whale getting stuck like this before, it’s very unusual, but just one of those things,” Grover said.
The whale was blessed by a local iwi, and scientists at Massey University took samples before they moved it to the boat ramp.
TINEKE JOUSTRA / Supplied
The whale was covered in scratch marks from rubbing against the shells at the bottom of the dock.
A decision on where he will be buried has yet to be made.
The whale is believed to be an Antarctic minke whale, about four meters in length, almost always found in the southern hemisphere.
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The body of the Antarctic minke whale attracted the attention of at least one shark.
