Keen eyed whale and dolphin lovers will be braving winter weather to take part in the country’s fifth national whale and dolphin count, this weekend 28-30 June.

People around the country are taking to high points to survey the sea and record efforts and sightings. Previous events have seen people in over 100 locations, with some rewarded with sightings including orca, humpbacks, rare beaked whales and Hector’s dolphins.

The whale and dolphin count contributes both a snapshot of the same time every year and information about the marine mammals close to shore across time.

The pod poll is run through the Facebook group Whale and Dolphin Watch - Cetacean Spotting NZ, which celebrates New Zealand’s whale and dolphin diversity, among the richest in the world.

The event is held at this time when peak numbers of humpback whales are migrating north along the coast heading to the tropics to feed and breed. New Zealand’s humpback whale population has been slow to recover from the impacts of whaling, which decimated numbers and continued into the 1960s.

A number of humpbacks, orca, Southern Right Whales, and a wide range of dolphin species have been seen close to shore and recorded on the Whale and Dolphin Spotting NZ page in recent weeks, boding well for the weekend’s spotters.

This year, sightings can also be recorded on a live map for the first time.

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