WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Swordtooth whales are the rarest in the world, and live sightings have never been recorded. No one knows how many there are, what they eat or even where they live in the vast expanse of the South Pacific Ocean. However, New Zealand scientists may have finally caught a break.
The country’s conservation agency said on Monday that a creature that washed up on a South Island beach this month is believed to be a sword-toothed whale. The five-metre-long creature, a type of beaked whale, was identified after washing up on Otago beach by its color patterns and the shape of its skull, beak and teeth.
“We know very little, virtually nothing” about the creatures, Hannah Hendriks, a marine technical adviser at the Department of Conservation, told the Associated Press. “This will lead to incredible science and world-first information.”
If the cetacean is confirmed to be the elusive shovel-toothed whale, it would be the first specimen found in a state that would allow scientists to dissect it, allowing them to map the whale’s relationship to the few other species found. learn what they eat and maybe get clues about where they live.
Only six other shovel-toothed whales have been identified, and those found intact on New Zealand’s North Island beaches were buried before DNA tests could verify their identification, Hendriks said, thwarting any chance of studying them.
This time, the stranded whale was quickly transported to cold storage and researchers will work with local Māori iwi tribes to plan how it will be examined, the conservation agency said.
The indigenous people of New Zealand consider whales a taonga — a sacred treasure — of cultural significance. In April, Pacific indigenous leaders signed a treaty that recognizes whales as “legal persons,” although such a declaration is not reflected in the laws of participating nations.
Nothing is currently known about the whales’ habitat. The creatures dive deeply in search of food and likely emerge so rarely that it has been impossible to narrow down their location beyond the South Pacific Ocean, home to some of the world’s deepest ocean trenches, Hendriks said.
“It’s very difficult to do research on marine mammals if we don’t see them in the sea,” she said. “It’s a bit of a needle in a haystack. You don’t know where to look.”
The conservation agency said genetic testing to confirm the whale’s identification could take months.
It took “many years and enormous effort on the part of researchers and local people” to identify the “incredibly enigmatic” mammals, said Kirsten Young, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter who has studied sword-toothed whales, in emailed comments. mail.
The new discovery “makes me wonder – how many are in the depths of the ocean and how do they live?” Young man said.
The first shovel-toothed whale bones were found in 1872 on Pitt Island, New Zealand. Another discovery was made on an offshore island in the 1950s, and the bones of a third were found on Robinson Crusoe Island in Chile in 1986. DNA sequencing in 2002 proved that all three specimens were the same species – and which was distinct from other beaked whales.
Researchers studying the mammal have not been able to confirm whether the species has become extinct. Then, in 2010, two entire spade-toothed whales, both dead, washed up on a New Zealand beach. First mistaken for one of the other 13 most common types of New Zealand beaked whales, tissue samples – taken after they had been buried – revealed them as an enigmatic species.
New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot, with more than 5,000 episodes recorded since 1840, according to the Department of Conservation.
