Three sperm whales at Paekākāriki, 1996
In March 1996, three sperm whales stranded and died at Paekākāriki. Te Ara records that local Māori removed jawbones from two of the whales for carving; the third whale was washed back out to sea. This is a directly relevant local story linking whales, the Kāpiti coastline and continuing customary relationships. The associated archival photograph has separate reuse restrictions.
A twentieth-century encounter on the coast
The report of three sperm whales at Paekākāriki in 1996 belongs to a different era of human–whale contact from the nineteenth-century fishery. Stranding events leave traces in local memory, newspapers, photographs and sometimes scientific records. Species identification, the number of animals and the circumstances of response should be taken from the original event record. Placed alongside the shore-whaling books, the incident helps show how coastal communities continued to encounter large whales after commercial hunting had ended.
Explore connected books
Explore connected history
- A public warning about the destruction of breeding whales
- A visitor describes the three small islands and their whaling crews
- Māori and whales: an enduring relationship
- Right whales
- Te Wai-o-Rongomai and Te Puna-o-Rongomai
- Waikanae naming traditions
- Whale Song, Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone (2025)
- Puketapu ki Paraparaumu — History and Living Connections
- Modern whaling and whale watching
- Kāpiti Island: from whaling to conservation
- Whaling remains at Te Kahu-o-te-rangi and Rangatira Point