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[Archival audio: sounds of people whale-watching] [Guide] Look at the *** whale!
[Whale watchers] Woo! [Guide] That is the fourth largest whale in
the world and we are up close and personal, my word.
[Whale watcher 1] Oh my goodness, there's two!
[Whale watcher 2] We're probably what, how far away are we, about 200 metres away from
[Whale watcher 1] Oh my goodness, there's two!
[Whale watcher 2] We're probably what, how far away are we, about 200 metres away from
a whale? [Whale watcher 1] Oh my God, I want to see
it come up close, come up close, come up close. [Whale watcher 2] Oh, it's blowing its spout.
[Whale watcher 1] Ohhhh my goodness. [Whale watcher 2] We've got two, we've got
two. We're right in the middle of two whales. [Whale watcher 1] Oh my God, there's something
that size in the ocean.
[Narrator] Kaikōura is a small town on the
east coast of the South Island, about two-and-a- half hours north of Christchurch. Since early
times, the sea has sustained Kaikōura, though in different ways. Its name means to eat crayfish.
Along the road to and from Kaikōura, roadside caravans advertise cooked crayfish for sale,
one of the many marine delicacies harvested here. In 2004, crayfish was New Zealand's
third-largest seafood export earner. Crays usually weigh around two to three kilograms,
and reach maturity between 7 and 11 years of age. Sometimes young crayfish migrate vast
distances, over 800 kilometres, along the east coasts of the North and South Islands.
Seals can also be found around Kaikōura. Ohau Point, 30 kilometres north of Kaikōura,
is the site of a seal colony. Here, during winter, young seal pups swim up a stream to
a pool hidden in bush on the inland side of the highway. This is the seal colony's equivalent
of a kindergarten, where the pups frolic in a protected place, learning the skills that
will later be needed in the sea. Similar behaviour can be seen nearby on the
coast itself, where young seals play in coastal rock pools. Surf occasionally surges over
the pools and washes the pups about. Adult seals laze on the adjacent rocks, looking
over their young. Fur seals, or kekeno, were an important food
source for Māori. But by the time Europeans arrived in the late 1700s, seal numbers had
been greatly depleted. European sealers then almost wiped the population out.
At Kaikōura itself, tourists from around the world come to swim with dolphins and go
whale watching. Māori used to kill and eat whale, but now many Māori in Kaikōura make
their living from taking tourists to see them. Whale watching began in 1987 when, like most
regions in New Zealand, Kaikōura was suffering from a declining economy. In an effort to
create employment in the town, local Māori looked to whales.
The founders of Whale Watch mortgaged their houses to secure a loan to start the business.
They began taking visitors out in a small inflatable vessel. Today Whale Watch has developed
into a multi-million-dollar enterprise run by the local Kati Kuri subtribe of the South
Island's Ngāi Tahu tribe. Whale Watch is regarded as one of the great success stories
of New Zealand's tourism industry. The reason whales feed so close to the Kaikōura
coastline is because of a large underwater canyon over 1500 metres deep, located less
than five kilometres from shore. A system of sea currents sustains a food chain with
abundant marine life. *** whales come to feed here, diving for squid, groper and ling.
They eat between 400 and 1,000 kilograms of squid a day, or 3% of their body weight.
One of the whales you can see at Kaikōura is the giant *** whale -- the largest of
all toothed whales. They can grow up to 20 metres long and males can weigh up to 60 tonnes.
The *** whale's brain weighs almost 10 kilograms, and is the heaviest of any mammal.
*** whales are the deepest diving of all whales, reaching depths of 3000 metres. To
do this, they can hold their breath for a long time. One recorded *** whale breath
lasted over two hours. Around Kaikōura, *** whales feed down to depths of 800 metres,
with an average dive time of about 50 minutes. Humpback whales can also be seen around Kaikōura,
as can blue whales, minke whales, southern right whales and beaked whales.