DOC worker Callue Lilley with a blue whale carcass that washed ashore near New Plymouth. Photo / Sorrel Hoskin
DOC worker Callue Lilley with a blue whale carcass that washed ashore near New Plymouth. Photo / Sorrel Hoskin
A dead whale that has washed on to the shore of Taranaki is thought to weigh about 100 tonnes and is unlikely to be moved from its final resting spot.
The 19.5m whale washed up on Tapuae Beach, near Okurukuru, and is believed to be a blue whale or apygmy blue whale.
Taranaki Department of Conservation acting senior biodiversity ranger Callum Lilley said it had been an interesting opportunity to get a closer look at the largest species on earth.
"It's fairly interesting, but a bit sad at the same time."
Experts from Massey University were at the beach today to carry out a necropsy.
"However, once inside we realised it's really decomposed inside. Although on the outside it appears it's fairly intact, it was just about like soup inside," Mr Lilley said.
He said there was nothing they could ascertain about the cause of the whale's death, except that there were no obvious signs of trauma.
