‘A really stocky, powerful-looking little animal:’ Scientists are gaining precious clues about the world’s rarest whale

(CNN) — Anton van Helden, an expert on some of the world’s rarest whales, was sitting on the couch in July recovering from surgery, when a photo flashed on his phone that would change the course of his career.

But this was no ordinary whale.

“I immediately went, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s a spade-toothed whale!’” the senior marine science adviser for New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) told CNN.

“A lot of people didn’t believe me,” he added.

The spade-toothed whale is the world’s rarest, only seven of its species have ever been recorded. It’s never been spotted alive at sea.

So when the near-mythical creature washed up mostly intact in July, many thought it was too good to be true.

Some of the world’s finest whale scientists, alongside members of the local Māori community, gathered last week in New Zealand to dissect the 16-foot, 3,000-pound, mammal — marking the first time anyone has ever seen inside a spade-toothed whale.

The spade-toothed whale is a member of the beaked whale family, which gets its name for its “dolphin-like” snouts, according to the DOC.

They are a diverse and elusive group of mammals, spending much of their lives in the depths of the ocean. One of them, the goose-beaked whale, holds the world record for the longest (three hours and 42 minutes) and deepest (almost three kilometers, or 1.86 miles) dive by a whale.

The first evidence of the spade-toothed whale’s existence came in 1874, when lower jaw and teeth samples were collected on Pitt Island, around 500 miles off New Zealand’s west coast. Two more partial skulls, one in New Zealand and one in Chile, later enabled scientists to confirm a brand-new species.

The first time anyone saw the whale in the flesh was in 2010, when a mother and calf were stranded in the Bay of Plenty on New Zealand’s North Island, but the carcasses weren’t suitable for dissection.

A stranding in 2017 in Gisborne, also on New Zealand’s North Island, added another specimen to the collection.

So enigmatic is the spade-toothed whale that even those like van Helden, who have spent their whole careers studying this family of whales, have more questions about the deep-sea diver than answers.

“These are extreme animals. These are animals that dive to great depths, so they’ve got all sorts of adaptations, if you like, for that remarkable environment.”

When a spade-toothed whale washed up at the mouth of New Zealand’s Taiari River in July, Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, the local tribal authority where the whale beached, recognized what a groundbreaking opportunity it was to learn about a rare species.

They immediately put the specimen in a freezer, so that it could later be dissected, Tumai Cassidy, cultural advisor for Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, told CNN.

“For our tribe in particular, whales are highly revered animals,” Cassidy said. “When they wash up, they are treated with great respect.”

Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou named the whale Ōnumia, after the traditional name of the area where the whale beached.

Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou led the dissection in partnership with the DOC, an arrangement that facilitates the sharing of both scientific and cultural knowledge.

“For our people, we are really open and are wanting to have collaboration, cooperation, partnerships,” Cassidy said, adding that at the end of the day, everyone has a “shared responsibility” to protect the animals on this earth.

“We’re all coming at it with our own stories and backgrounds,” said van Helden, calling the dissection a “rich, holistic process.”

The scientists worked their way through the animal, starting with external measurements, weighing its blubber, and cutting into it to identify various muscles.

When CNN spoke with van Helden, the team was just about to remove the whale’s head, which they would later put through a CT scan.

With each slice and turn of the whale carcass, more clues emerge.

Van Helden is particularly interested to learn about how the whale produces sound, given that they spend so much time deep in the ocean, away from the air.

When asked what surprised him about seeing the mammal up close for the first time, van Helden noted that the spade-toothed whale was shorter and stockier than other beaked whales.

“It is really robust. It’s a really stocky, powerful-looking little animal.”

“Compared to other whales,” he quickly clarified, with a chuckle. “Obviously, its enormous.”

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