Before whaling took its toll, southern right whales bred in Wellington harbour. Their cavorting was so loud a visitor in the 1800s complained the whales kept him awake all night. Today when a whale surfaces in these waters most watchers are spellbound. Motorists get caught in major traffic jams on the motorway when the tall fins of orca slice through the harbour waves. Seaside coffee sippers and kayakers are entertained when hundreds of dolphins regularly parade into town. Whales and dolphins excite the emotions and imagination of people. Wellington, with its sheltered inner harbour and outer rough and raw coastline, is lucky to live on the edge of their world. Keep your eye out for these show-stopping neighbours.
The Cook Strait takeaway bar
The waters around Wellington do not hold permanent whale populations, but there is something to offer both toothed and baleen whales that pass through each year. Toothed whales include dolphins, porpoises, orca, sperm and beaked whales. Baleen whales include some of the biggest—southern right, humpback and blue whales. Deep Cook Strait canyons and food-bearing currents provide a rich larder, and Wellington harbour, shallow by comparison, offers a chance for rest and relaxation in warmer waters. Not far from the outer coast the sea floor drops to canyons more than 1000 metres deep. In the dark crevices live squid, a favorite food of deep-diving toothed sperm whales. For baleen whales, Cook Strait provides a rich ‘soup’ of fish and tiny animals that can be sieved from the ocean through their giant baleen plates. The soup is mixed by currents swirling through the canyons and over reefs, stimulating the growth of tiny planktonic plants and attracting zooplankton, which in turn are eaten by fish.
Which Whales are found around Wellington?
Twenty-three whale species have been seen passing through Wellington’s waters, though some are very rare and only join the record books when they strand or wash up on shore.
Common visitors
Our most frequent Wellington visitors are dolphins—the common dolphin and orca. Both can be spotted all year round, but are most likely seen between February and April.
Common dolphin
Playful pods of common dolphins are regular visitors to Wellington. Hundreds and sometimes thousands can chop the harbour waves or leap along the coast. Usually less than two-metres long, the common dolphin can be recognised from its colour, distinctive beak and low, smoothly sloping head. Animals are dark grey or purplish-black on top, and white and cream below.Watch out for them as they surface to breathe. Unlike us their breathing is not unconscious. They can sleep only by resting one side of their brain at a time.
Orca (Killer whale)
Pods of orca, power into Wellington for a pit stop of their favourite meal. They like to dig the muddy sea bottom for stingrays and there is a good supply of these in the shallow basin of Wellington Harbour. They also eat seals and dolphins. An estimated 150 to 200 orcas make regular laps around New Zealand, moving between the north of the North Island and Kaikoura in the south. Common behaviour—the sort that brings Hutt motorway traffic to a standstill—is spy hopping (a tail-stand and 360 degree turn), breaching and slapping flippers on the water. The tall, 1.8 metre dorsal fin of the bull is also very recognizable. The orca is the largest member of the dolphin family. The name killer whale was originally ‘whale killer’—named by Spanish sailors who saw them hunt larger whales. Despite their fierce reputation, no records exist of deliberate fatal attacks on people. But it still pays to treat them with respect.
Occasional visitors
Humpback whale
Humpback whales commute through Cook Strait each year, between summer feeding in Antarctic waters and winter breeding in the Pacific. Two were seen in Lyall Bay in 1999.
Southern right whale
Right whales also travel past. They once numbered 60,000. Today, after whaling, only a few thousand remain. One visited Wellington harbour in 1997.
Sperm whale
Some sperm whales hangout in Cook Strait all year round. They were once hunted for their oil to make medicines and candles. These days people visit them, at the southern end of Cook Strait, on whale-watching tours from Kaikoura. The minke and long finned pilot whales and dusky and bottlenosed dolphins are also more likely to be spotted from boats than from shore.
Very rare visitors
Five species of beaked whales have come ashore around Wellington—the Arnoux’s, Cuvier’s, Andrew’s, Gray’s and Hector’s beaked whales. Other strandings include the straptooth, blue, pigmy right and pygmy sperm whales.
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