Castlepoint fishermen became whale riders during a tug of war with the sea yesterday to keep a decaying marine giant from washing ashore at the beach resort.
Dean Hatchard, long-time Castlepoint fisherman and captain of the fishing vessel Ventura, said he and three crewmen spent more than an hour from about
7am yesterday aboard his 12m craft pulling, then pushing, the decaying sperm whale carcass from its collision course with the resort beachfront to a point about 300m offshore near Whakataki Beach north of Castlepoint.
Mr Hatchard said the 16m whale was slowly manoeuvred to Whakataki by "nudging it with the bow" to keep the body from fouling the residential area of the resort and to still allow access to the whale for Department of Conservation staff and iwi representatives at Castlepoint.
"At first we tied a tow to its tail but that was too awkward and we would have ripped off the jaw if we tied it there, so we found it was easier to just guide it, nudge it, to a better location," he said.
"It was a slow job because we didn't want to get too brutal."
Mr Hatchard said the whale was significantly decayed and may have been dead for a month or more before the body drifted into the Castlepoint surf.
Ventura crew members said there were shark attack wounds visible on the body and scars near its mouth from what seemed to have been inflicted by giant squid.
Members of the crew, including Grant Goddard, Karl Broughton and Graham McConaghty, said they stood on the body of the whale for several minutes during the salvage operation in a first-time experience for each of the fishermen.
The carcass was left lolling in low tide off Whakataki Beach with a small crowd of men, women and children gathering shortly before noon to view the colossus as the ocean washed over it for a final time before its burial on land.
Iwi representatives were to meet yesterday afternoon with Department of Conservation staff to discuss the possible examination, and salvage of teeth and bone from the whale and disposal of the carcass.
Department of Conservation area manager Chris Lester said there would probably be no scientific inspection of the whale as the carcass was too badly decomposed.
"Once the iwi have decided their preferred course of action the body will be disposed of in a suitable place near where it is now."
