Stranded whale in Coromandel Harbour dies

Pictures of the stranding taken from a distance and shared on a community Facebook page. Photo / Sonia Wirihana

A whale stranded in shallow water in Coromandel Harbour has died overnight.

Authorities were working to help the whale stranded at Te Kouma, just south of Coromandel Town yesterday.

Coromandel CFM reported this morning that the Department of Conservation had advised the whale had died despite efforts to refloat it.

DoC staff confirmed it was about 9m long and established it to be a female Baird's beaked whale - not a male southern beaked whale as reported yesterday.

The focus would now shift to a burial today with DoC working on arrangements with iwi, Coromandel CFM said.

DoC said yesterday the whale had been "energetic" and had been attempting to free itself, but the water was not deep enough for it to swim.

Professor Karen Stockin, director of the Cetacean Ecology Research Group at Massey University, said this type of whale was not common around NZ very often and certainly not in shallow coastal waters.