Whale carcass work finishes, rāhui lifted at Coromandel beach

Friday, 28 October 2022

The whale has been dubbed Puhiwai Rangi and elements taken from its carcass will be used for traditional mātauranga Māori and cultural practices.

Work on a dead sperm whale has finished, leaving the carcass ready to bury and lifting a rāhui on the Coromandel beach where it lay.

The whale washed up on Matapaua beach on Saturday and has been named Puhiwai Rangi. It was moved to Wharekaho-Simpsons Beach over the weekend so local iwi Ngāti Hei could better oversee the process of removing culturally and scientifically significant elements from the carcass.

Kaumātua Joe Davis suggested on Thursday that some of the whale’s oil might be used as a remedy to treat kauri dieback, a disease which afflicts much of Coromandel’s old growth forests.

While some in the beachside community felt the whale should have been towed offshore, DOC revealed on Friday that would have presented a maritime safety issue and Puhiwai Rangi could have come loose and returned to shore anyway.

Since a dead sperm whale was found on a Coromandel beach, it has been towed to a new site and iwi have begun stripping its carcass. Video first published October 26 2022.

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Seabirds visible on the dunes at Wharekaho-Simpsons Beach, where three dotterel chicks were hatched this week as a dead sperm whale was flensed.

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The parts taken from the whale will be used for traditional mātauranga Māori and cultural practices.

The remaining unused portions will be buried on iwi land where other, smaller whales have been given their obsequies in the past.

Some locals had also voiced concerns about who was footing the bill for the removal operation and subsequent flensing, or stripping of the carcass. DOC announced that while final costs had not been tallied, the expense will be shared by DOC and Ngāti Hei.

The beach’s dunes were left undisturbed throughout the process, according to DOC operations manager Nick Kelly.

He says that, in an act of new life, “three dotterel chicks were hatched on the beach”, which also serves as an important breeding and flocking site for the birds.