The review is led by Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou in partnership with the Te Papa Atawhai Department of Conservation (DoC), in collaboration with Tūhura Otago Museum and Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka University Otago.

Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou president Nadia Wesley-Smith said the opportunity to study tohorā is important for mana whenua.

“Tohorā allows mana whenua to reconnect and apply indigenous knowledge and traditional cultural practices passed down from generation to generation,” she said.

“The hapū of Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou will officially welcome the research team to our Marae at Ōtākou and teach them our usual protocols. In exchange, they offered to invite our rakatahi (young people) who work in the taiao space (environment) to teach them whale dissection.

A research team of international and local scientists will be led by DoC Senior Marine Science Advisor Anton van Helden, an expert on beaked whales.

Scientists from DoC, Tūhura Otago Museum and Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka University Otago will be joined by three international marine biologists from the United States, Dr Joy S. Reidenberg, Dr Michael Denk and Dr Alexander Werth.

“When I started working on this species, it was known from a lower jaw and two teeth collected from Pitt Island, Rekohu, Chatham Islands,” van Helden said.

Van Helden said the collaboration between Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou and DoC extended beyond New Zealand shores. American scientists, as part of their cultural practice, work with First Nations peoples in a similar context.

“It’s extremely special,” he said.

Van Helden said he was particularly excited to learn how the animals produced sounds in conjunction with their ability to dive deep, as well as learn more about their stomachs and diets.

“Each species of beaked whale has a unique stomach plan, which is weird, right? said the scientist. “We want to explore that. What does this mean? Why do they have to do this?

“They produce noise, the sounds they make, primarily through their nasal structures or their lips, which are not where our lips are. They’re here on the face – we have the facilities here to be able to scan the head, to be able to look at these structures in situ, rather than just cutting them out.

He added that other beaked whales were known to be deep divers, which changed the way they produced sounds.

“These guys make the same clicking noises at all these different stages, no matter where they are in the water column. This means they have to manage this little air pocket somehow.

“We don’t know what we’re going to find…Who knows what we’re going to find? That’s part of the beauty,” he said.

Professor Reidenberg, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, traveled to New Zealand to participate in the dissection.

She said she had previously been involved in animal dissections in New Zealand, including the Te Papa giant squid.

“This animal is probably as extreme as it gets,” she said.

“What interests us is not only how these animals died, but also how they lived. And by discovering how they lived, we hope to make discoveries that we can apply to the human condition.

“Some diseases mimic these extreme environments. If we could see how these whales survive in places where we can’t survive, maybe we could treat some of these diseases,” she said.

Reidenberg said she was honored to be included and experience the rituals in collaboration with Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou.

“I wish we had something like this at home…We are very willing to learn and work with indigenous cultures to ensure everything is done respectfully,” she said.

“It’s an extraordinary moment. It’s not just about the whale, it’s also about the connections we make and the knowledge we share.

Following the dissection, Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou gave permission to Tūhura to retain the skeleton but will retain the kauae (jaw) for cultural purposes.

A 3D print will be made of the jaw for presentation purposes by the museum.

Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.

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