Why scientists are marveling at a potential spade-toothed whale sighting

If scientists confirm that the whale belongs to the rare species, this will mark only the seventh spade-toothed whale specimen ever studied, and the first chance to dissect the remains.

“It’s like the yeti. It’s like the Sasquatch. It’s a big animal that lives in the deep ocean that we really have no idea about,” said Kirsten Young, a senior lecturer in ecology at the University of Exeter who previously studied spade-toothed whales.

The family of beaked whales represents a mysterious group of mammals. Because they probably spend most of their time diving deep in the ocean hunting for meals of squid and fish, they are rarely spotted by people.

The spade-toothed whale, also known as Mesoplodon traversii, was first denoted as a distinct species within the beaked whale family in 1874, after a piece of its jaw was found on Pitt Island, New Zealand. Nearly a decade later, scientists discovered a few skull fragments and began piecing together what they could about the marine mammal.

It was not until 2010 that scientists were able to put a face to the name of the spade-toothed whale when a mother and calf washed up onto New Zealand’s Opape Beach, flesh intact. By studying the older female whale, Young and her team deduced that spade-toothed whales have black snouts, dark flippers and white bellies.

Now, scientists believe a male spade-toothed whale has made an appearance near Taieri Mouth, a small fishing village by New Zealand’s Taieri River.

Given that the New Zealand coastline has some of the highest numbers of beached marine mammals, the country has perfected a systematic response to these incidents that involves members of the community, the Department of Conservation and local Maori people.

This most recent sighting was addressed no differently. A camera shot provided the first evidence of the washed-up 16-foot-long animal to Department of Conservation staff, who organized the whale’s removal from the beach and are working closely with Te Runanga o Otakou, an Indigenous tribe in the region, to decide how to properly handle remains of the whale, which is sacred in Maori culture. Skin samples can be obtained from beached whales only if permission is granted by Maori people.

So far, specimen samples have made their way to the University of Auckland, where researchers may spend weeks or months analyzing the DNA from the carcass and confirming the whale’s species.

The specimen can help scientists chip away at questions they have about the spade-toothed whale. While Young’s earlier work offers some answers, the freshness of this sample will allow scientists to get a singular look at the whale’s color and markings.

“This one was very fresh. There was no smell or nothing. It hadn’t been dead long, obviously, because it was just perfect,” said Trevor King, a contractor who relocated the whale from the beach to cold storage.

Additionally, scientists can study the whale’s stomach contents and identify its diet.

But many questions about spade-toothed whales can be answered only by live sightings, including questions about their behavior and distribution across oceans.

“We think we know everything about science and the animals that live around us, and we really don’t,” Young said. The rare beached whale “is a testament to the fact that there’s so much about the oceans we don’t know,” Young added.