Department of Conservation trains more rangers in mercy killing of stranded sperm whales

Monday, 3 April 2017

DOC ranger Jim Campbell, pictured with the SWED, says killing sperm whales is not an easy or desirable task and training is highly specialised.

More Department of Conservation rangers are being trained to use a specialised high-calibre rifle for the mercy killing of stranded sperm whales.

Currently only Whanganui-based ranger Jim Campbell has the expertise needed to fire the Sperm Whale Euthanasia Device (SWED) into a sperm whale's brain, which is the size of a rugby ball.

Onlookers inspect a dead sperm whale which beached on Rabbit Island Beach in Tasman in January.

Documents obtained under the Official Information Act revealed DOC was looking to reduce its reliance on Campbell, and was also exploring a separate method of specialised euthanasia for large humpbacks, numbers of which were increasing in New Zealand waters.

Specialised training in the use of the SWED was being undertaken by DOC staff. A general workshop on euthanasia for all types of whales would also take place in the coming months.

Sperm whales are too big to refloat and often die a slow death if not euthanised.

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The killing of stranded whales was a highly emotional decision made only after consultation and based on consideration for the welfare of the animal, the documents said.

Euthanasia had been a common undertaking in whale strandings over the past five years, the figures showed.

But for sperm whales and other whales longer than six metres, regular firearms have had mixed results.

The SWED was developed by ballistics experts Craig Bamber and Norm Marsh in the 1990s.

At that point, Campbell was a rookie learning how to operate the device.

This year, he will be training up more staff to do the highly emotional job of mercy killing in the case of a sperm whale stranding.

'The reason we started to get interested was the issue around females being brought ashore. We had a matriarch beach and then about three or four other whales called in,' Campbell said.

'That pointed out the issue of if you get an old matriarch beaching, she's going to call in others.'

The SWED fires custom-made 15mm diameter bullets with huge force.

It was developed for use on sperm whales because of their unique skull anatomy. A normal rifle would not guarantee a quick or humane death for a sperm whale.

Sperm whales were almost impossible to refloat and because of their weight, and their body would begin to crush their internal organs and cook from the inside out if beached.

Campbell said sperm whales didn't strand that often so the device had only been used about 10 times in total.

'The training is quite difficult. To really understand how to use it you need to know the anatomy of the skull of a sperm whale.

'You need to know the aiming points and you need two people to use the device correctly.'

He said it was an intense experience.

'You're euthanising a large mammal which is certainly not like shooting anything else. They seem to know . . . you get that feeling that they do.

'They are certainly very aware of what's going on. It's not something you wish to do.'

A complicated 'decision tree' and consultation with iwi had to be undertaken before the SWED could be fired, and it was often only used in circumstances where it was not a good idea to let the animal die naturally, or to kill a matriarch, Campbell said.

Two people were required to fire the weapon and currently Campbell would work with the device developers as a team.

'Sperm whales are massive animals. So the projectile is designed for what it does, punch through the skin, the blubber, the meat, the tissue and into the brain without having enough power to shoot through to the other side.

'It's got to have enough power to get to the brain but not enough power to skip through to someone's fishing boat.'