A juvenile yet gigantic humpback whale could be coming to a beach near you after it was found washed-up on a remote Dunedin beach by a seven-year-old.
Archie Dennis-Milne, who lives at Omimi near Warrington, said he found the dead whale on a remote beach when he went to check out a problem with his family’s electric fence on Friday.
With his mother, Nicola Dennis, he went down and investigated the big dead cetacean, which smelt like fish, Archie said.
It was a bit of a scramble getting down to the beach to have a look, and after identifying it they informed the Department of Conservation (Doc) about the find.
Archie had never seen a whale on the shore before, but the large marine mammal was only the second-weirdest find that had washed up.
His weirdest find was a golf ball, he said.
Dr Dennis said a dead sea lion and part of a kayak had also washed up over the years, along with lots of jandals.
Doc biodiversity ranger Jim Fyfe said the 9.7m-long humpback was likely to be a juvenile which had been dead for at least 10 days.
Fully grown humpbacks tended to grow up to between 12m and 16m long.
The whale was first reported when it was seen floating off Warrington on Friday, July 15.
However, the bloated state of the whale suggested it could have been dead longer.
A DNA sample was taken from the carcass, along with pictures and a full set of measurements.
The cause of death was unclear, Mr Fyfe said.
Mr Fyfe visited the whale today along with Otago Museum natural science assistant collection manager Kane Fleury and East Otago Taiapure management committee chairman Brendan Flack.
Seeing the creature up close was "pretty special", Mr Fyfe said.
While he had been involved in coastal conservation for about three decades he could not remember seeing a washed-up whale before, as they rarely washed up onshore.
Big waves and heavy weather were expected on Wednesday and it was likely the whale would wash back out to sea.
But it was possible it could show up at another beach — either a long way away, or in the next bay, Mr Fyfe said.
