WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) 鈥 Spade-toothed whales are the world鈥檚 rarest, with no live sightings ever 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, scientists in New Zealand may have finally caught a break.
The country's conservation agency said Monday a creature that washed up on a South Island beach this month is believed to be a spade-toothed whale. The five-meter-long creature, a type of beaked whale, was identified after it washed ashore on an Otago beach from its color patterns and the shape of its skull, beak and teeth.
鈥淲e know very little, practically nothing鈥 about the creatures, Hannah Hendriks, marine technical adviser for the Department of Conservation, said. 鈥淭his is going to lead to some amazing science and world-first information.鈥
If the cetacean is confirmed to be the elusive spade-toothed whale, it would be the first specimen found in a state that would permit scientists to dissect it, allowing them to map the relationship of the whale to the few others of the species found, learn what it eats and perhaps lead to clues about where they live.
Only six other spade-toothed whales have ever been pinpointed, and those found intact on New Zealand鈥檚 North Island beaches were buried before DNA testing could verify their identification, Hendriks said, thwarting any chance to study them.
This time, the beached whale was quickly transported to cold storage and researchers will work with local M膩ori iwi (tribes) to plan how it will be examined, the conservation agency said.
New Zealand鈥檚 Indigenous people consider whales a taonga 鈥 a sacred treasure 鈥 of cultural significance. In April, Pacific Indigenous leaders signed a treaty recognizing whales as 鈥渓egal persons,鈥 although such a declaration is not reflected in the laws of participating nations.
Nothing is currently known about the whales鈥 habitat. The creatures deep-dive for food and likely surface so rarely that it has been impossible to narrow their location further than the southern Pacific Ocean, home to some of the world鈥檚 deepest ocean trenches, Hendriks said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very hard to do research on marine mammals if you don鈥檛 see them at sea,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit of a needle in a haystack. You don鈥檛 know where to look.鈥
The conservation agency said the genetic testing to confirm the whale's identification could take months.
It took 鈥渕any years and a mammoth amount of effort by researchers and local people鈥 to identify the 鈥渋ncredibly cryptic鈥 mammals, Kirsten Young, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter who has studied spade-toothed whales, said in emailed remarks.
The fresh discovery 鈥渕akes me wonder 鈥 how many are out in the deep ocean and how do they live?鈥 Young said.
The first spade-toothed whale bones were found in 1872 on New Zealand鈥檚 Pitt Island. Another discovery was made at an offshore island in the 1950s, and the bones of a third were found on Chile鈥檚 Robinson Crusoe Island in 1986. DNA sequencing in 2002 proved that all three specimens were of the same species 鈥 and that it was one distinct from other beaked whales.
Researchers studying the mammal couldn鈥檛 confirm if the species went extinct. Then in 2010, two whole spade-toothed whales, both dead, washed up on a New Zealand beach. Firstly mistaken for one of New Zealand鈥檚 13 other more common types of beaked whale, tissue samples 鈥 taken before they were buried 鈥 later revealed them as the enigmatic species.
New Zealand is a whale-stranding hotspot, with more than 5,000 episodes recorded since 1840, according to the Department of Conservation.
