The sperm whale that beached itself on Christchurch’s Brighton Beach on Saturday was buried last night.
A number of residents stayed late into the night as two diggers worked to roll the mammal into its grave.
It was no easy task, with the whale weighing up to thirty tonnes and measuring fifteen meters long.
After dying early Sunday morning, conservation crews worked to move the heavy mammal into its grave. (Source: 1News)
The animal had first beached itself on Saturday but died early on Sunday morning despite attempts to refloat it.
"We were hoping last night that as the tide came in, because [the whale] was in the channel beyond the sandbank, that the tide would simply refloat the whale, which would've been the best outcome... but sadly that wasn't going to be the outcome," Katie Oliver, a marine mammal medic, said.
The whale was stranded on a Christchurch beach yesterday and sadly died overnight. (Source: 1News)
Local iwi had blessed the whale with a karakia before beginning the burial process.
It was the fifth sperm whale to have died on our shores in the last month.
Project Jonah, a whale conservation group, said there had only been four successful refloats of sperm whales in Aotearoa, the last one happening in Timaru in 2020.
"Large whales like this one pose a huge logistical challenge for a refloat due to their size and weight, and often they have underlying health conditions, which is likely the reason for them stranding," it said on Facebook.
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