A pod of 7 New Zealand Coastal orca - believed to be 1 male, 5 females, and a youngster (either a calf or a juvenile) - entered the Pāuatahanui Inlet, in Porirua Harbour, between 7 and 8 am on Saturday the 28th of August. The Inlet is frequented by eagle rays, a common source of food for our orca.

While in the Inlet, the orca have been periodically eating, sleeping and just generally having a good time!

New Zealand Orca are on the Department of Conservation's ‘Nationally Critical’ list, as there are fewer than 200 around our coastline-so it's very exciting for us to get to see 7 visiting us!

Whale Rescue has been working with DOC, the Orca Research Trust (www.orcaresearch.org), local Iwi and HUHA (Helping You Help Animals), to observe and document the pod since they entered the Inlet. Together, we have also developed a network of people (isolating in their homes) who are able to give us accurate locations of the pod. We are also receiving photos of the pod from members of the public who can document them from their homes.

As this is the 3rd day that the pod has been in the Inlet, we are monitoring them very closely; the Inlet is known to have sandbanks that constantly change and with the current silting up of the harbour due to construction run-off there are likely to be even more changes. We believe the orca are exploring those channels and are preparing to find their way out.

Dr Ingrid Visser, expert on New Zealand orca and founder of the Orca Research Trust (and co-founder of Whale Rescue), has been working with us remotely to assess the pods' behaviour. We would like to emphasize that Whale Rescue are obeying Level 4 Covid-19 lockdown requirements, and we respectfully ask that members of the public do the same.

We will be updating people via the Whale Rescue Facebook page as the situation progresses.

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