Travers’ beaked whales are the rarest in the world, and no live sightings have ever been recorded. No one knows how many there are, what they eat, or even where they live in the vast expanse of the southern Pacific Ocean. However, New Zealand scientists may have made a breakthrough.
The national conservation agency said Monday that a creature that washed up on a South Island beach this month is believed to be a Travers’ beaked whale. The five-metre-long creature, a type of beaked whale, was identified by its colouring and the shape of its skull, beak and teeth after it washed up on an Otago beach.
“We know very little, virtually nothing” about the creatures, Hannah Hendriks, a marine technical adviser for the Department of Conservation, told The Associated Press.
“This will lead to amazing scientific data and information that is unprecedented in the world.”
If the cetacean is confirmed to be the elusive Travers’ beaked whale, it would be the first specimen found in a condition that would allow scientists to dissect it, allowing them to map the whale’s relationship to the few other specimens of the species found, learn what it eats and perhaps find clues about where it lived.
Only six other Travers’ beaked whales have been identified, and those found intact on beaches on New Zealand’s North Island were buried before DNA tests could verify their identification, Mr.me Hendriks, which thwarted any possibility of studying them.
This time, the stranded whale was quickly transported to a cold room and researchers will work with the Iwi, a local Maori society, to plan how it will be examined, the conservation agency said.
New Zealand’s indigenous peoples regard whales as taonga – a sacred treasure – of cultural significance. In April, Pacific indigenous leaders signed a treaty recognising whales as “legal persons”, although such a declaration is not reflected in the laws of the participating nations.
Nothing is currently known about the whales’ habitat. The creatures dive deep to feed and likely surface so rarely that it has been impossible to determine their location beyond the southern Pacific Ocean, home to some of the world’s deepest ocean trenches, Mr.me Hendriks.
“It’s very difficult to do research on marine mammals if you don’t see them at sea,” she said. “It’s a bit of a needle in a haystack. You don’t know where to look.”
Months before getting results
The conservation agency said genetic testing to confirm the whale’s identification could take months.
It took “many years and a colossal amount of effort by researchers and local people” to identify these “incredibly enigmatic” mammals, said Kirsten Young, a professor at the University of Exeter in England who has studied Travers’s beaked whales.
This discovery “makes me wonder: how many are in the depths of the ocean and how do they live?” said Mr.me Young in an email.
The first bones of Travers’ beaked whales were discovered in 1872 on Pitt Island, New Zealand. Another discovery was made on an offshore island in the 1950s, and the bones of a third whale were found on the Chilean island of Robinson Crusoe in 1986. DNA sequencing in 2002 proved that all three specimens belonged to the same species – and that they were distinct from other beaked whales.
Researchers studying the mammal couldn’t confirm whether the species was extinct. Then, in 2010, two entire whales, both dead, washed up on a New Zealand beach. Initially mistaken for one of New Zealand’s 13 other common types of beaked whales, tissue samples — taken after they were buried — revealed they were an enigmatic species.
New Zealand is a hotspot for whale strandings, with more than 5,000 recorded since 1840, according to the Department of Conservation.