THE BODY OF a male spade-toothed whale, the rarest species of whale in the world, may have washed ashore near Taiari Mouth in New Zealand, officials say. 

On 4 July, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) were notified that a type of beaked whale around five meters long had been discovered. 

Experts who examined the whale have agreed that it appears to be a spade-toothed whale. The species is so rare that next to nothing is known about them. 

DOC Coastal Otago Operations Manager Gabe Davies said that if the species of the whale is confirmed, it will be a significant scientific find. 

“Spade-toothed whales are one of the most poorly known large mammalian species of modern times,” Davies said. “Since the 1800s, only six samples have ever been documented worldwide, and all but one of these was from New Zealand.”

No live sightings have ever been recorded, the DOC said. If confirmed, this would mark the seventh specimen to have been found, the first discovery dating back to 1874 from Pitt Island, Chatham Islands.

The whale has been removed from the beach, and local rūnaka members, or council members, along with Otago Museum were on site to support and document.

The whale is currently in cold storage to preserve the remains until the next steps have been decided, the DOC said, adding that a specimen this fresh offers the first opportunity ever for a spade-toothed whale to be dissected. 

Genetic samples have been sent to the University of Auckland as curators of the New Zealand Cetacean Tissue Archive. It may take several weeks or months for the DNA to be processed and a final species ID to be confirmed.

The first intact specimen was from a mother and calf stranding in Bay of Plenty in 2010. A further stranding in 2017 in Gisborne in northeastern New Zealand added one more specimen to the collection. 

Previously, the only samples researchers had as evidence of the species were a lower jaw and two teeth from Pitt Island in 1874, and skeletal remains of another two specimens found on White Island and Robinson Crusoe Island in Chile.