On the trail of the Te Atatu whale: the fishy tale of Old Sparky
Friday, 1 September 2017
The mystery of the west Auckland motorway whale has been solved.
The fishy tale led Stuff reporters to marine mammal experts and film makers, before they finally uncovered the truth about the whale – a 20-metre bull named Old Sparky.
A motorist raised the alarm on Thursday after capturing what appeared to be a dead sperm whale being transported down Auckland's northwestern motorway on video.
Auckland man James Leyland was driving home about 2pm when he saw what he thought was a large water tanker on the road near Te Atatu.
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He continued driving, getting closer to the truck. It wasn't until he was right up beside the 'tank', and saw it had a mouth, that he realised what it was: a sperm whale.
'I was buzzing out,' he said.
Stuff showed NIWA cetacean expert and scientist Dr Krista Hupman the footage on Thursday night, who said it was '100 per cent a sperm whale'.
But neither she, nor the Department of Conservation, had heard anything about a sperm whale in the area, let alone one that had died.
Sperm whales are protected species under the Marine Mammals Protection Act (1978) and there are a number of stringent processes which are followed when one dies.
DOC will often perform a necropsy where the whale was found and liaise with local iwi on what they want to do.
Typically the site is blessed and the whale is buried where it was found, Hupman said.
It would be against protocol for anyone to move a whale – you can't even hold any part of a whale bone without DOC permission, she said.
But that's not the only reason seeing a sperm whale on the back of a truck in Auckland was 'bizarre'. It was extremely unusual for a sperm whale to be that far north.
In fact, Hupman could only recall one known sighting in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf in the past 16 years.
That was because they prefer deep water - between 200 metres and 1000m, so are usually found in areas with submarine canyons like Kaikoura. The Hauraki Gulf is only 60m deep at its deepest point.
All of this caused Hupman to question whether the whale was real.
Part of the back of the carcass appeared to be cut off and you would see a lot of bleeding if that were the case, she said.
Leyland also said it looked like the whale had been dead for a while, but curiously, it did not smell at all.
This left DOC and the marine mammal community scratching their heads – if the whale was a prop, who did it belong to?
Whoever it was, they had spent their money wisely.
'It's so well made, it looks absolutely anatomically correct,' Hupman said.
The team at South Pacific Pictures said it wasn't theirs, and Auckland Film Studios, which is based in west Auckland, could not be reached for comment.
Kumeu Film Studios is also based in west Auckland, and promisingly, filmed a sci-fi movie about a prehistoric shark earlier this year.
In the film a prop whale – known only as Savaged Whale – was attacked by the shark. However, a researcher who helped advise on whales for the movie said they all left the country months ago when filming ceased.
Screen Auckland, which issues Auckland Council permits for filming in public places across the region, was not aware of any current projects involving a whale prop.
On Friday, DOC Auckland operations director Andrew Baucke said DOC and police had investigated the video. They were satisfied the whale on the truck was a model, and would not be taking any further action.
DOC would not release any further details, nor confirm if the whale was involved with filming efforts.
In a last-ditch effort to uncover the truth, Stuff rang prop makers all over the country.
After a number of dead ends, they hit upon Glasshammer Visual Effects, an Auckland-based model-making company.
Owner Justin Buckingham was happy to help, and finally put the mystery of the whale to rest.
Old Sparky, a fibreglass and resin construction, had been made more than a decade ago for a BBC programme called Ocean Odyssey, he said.
'It's been sitting outside my workshop for the last 10 years.'
Ocean Odyssey followed Old Sparky from his first deep dive to his death at 80, on a west coast beach.
A man who owns a truck company had collected the whale on Thursday to take it to his farm, where it would live as a sort of installation piece.
Buckingham, who also made the whales for Whale Rider, was self-effacing when he heard people had thought the prop – which had taken about 12 weeks to make – was real.
'That's the case with a lot of these models. It looks better with age,' he said.
'It's been sitting outside for a decade and all the paint is starting to peel off, which looks like its skin, which is why people might be mistaken.'
As for the part of the carcass that appeared to be 'cut off', Buckingham said that was absolutely correct.
The model was originally made in three sections, and only two sections had been transported.
'What you see is the stomach and the nose. There's a whole tail and flukes that wouldn't fit on the truck.'
After 24 hours of sleuthing, we were finally able to close the book on the mystery. All's whale that ends whale.