The mink whale was found near the Rangiata River by a family on Wednesday. It was still alive when the Department of Conservation (DOC) was informed in the early evening, but died shortly after. As the team is constrained in their ability to respond due to the lockdown rules, they are forced to decide on a case by case basis. In this case, the whale was in such a bad shape that it was “unlikely that any intervention would have resulted in the whale surviving the stranding”. Therefore, they decided to “let nature take its course”.
As the whale is close to housing areas, it poses a health risk and needs to be buried quickly. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the DOC staff will not be able to attend the burial. Neither will the representatives from Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua who “would normally carry out tikanga associated with the death of a taonga species”. But they have been involved in the decision making to approve the burial that will ultimately be carried out by Environment Canterbury river engineers.
The DOC’s emergency hotline is still operating for essential services and incidents of injured wildlife. Nevertheless, they will not be able to gather any scientific samples or body measures from the whale as most of their work is on hold under the countries alert level 4, unless it is essential to deal with a significant hazard to public health and safety.
The article can be found here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/121051365/lockdown-rules-hamper-disposal-of-dead-whale-near-rangitata-river-mouth
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