Game fishing tag stuck in stranded whale in Northland

Marine mammal experts and conservationists are horrified at the "sinister" discovery of a game fishing tag embedded in a stranded pygmy sperm whale calf on a Northland beach.

A female and juvenile pygmy sperm whale and two other whales were found dead or stranded 26km apart on Ripiro Beach last week.

The two other whales have been identified as females of a beaked whale species.

Department of Conservation national marine mammal co-ordinator Rob Suisted said the whales beached in what is the annual peak stranding period.

"There is nothing freakish about the four strandings themselves, but finding the tag in the calf is possibly an indication of something far more sinister."

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)