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Whales and dolphins

Podcasts about whales: Attitudes, research, first encounters

Get up close and personal with, and learn about cultural attitudes towards, the whale.

All recordings made in February 2008, as part of the Whales | Tohorā exhibition.

Advocating for whales

Rawiri Paratene, a trustee for South Pacific Whale Research Group Consortium, talks about his first encounter with a whale “eye to eye”.

Cultural attitudes to whales in Tuvalu

Viliamo Iese, Research Fellow at the University of the South Pacific, discusses whale research and cultural attitudes to whales in Tuvalu.

Whale research in Tahiti

Michael Poole of the South Pacific Whales Research Consortium tells us about his whale research on the island of Mo’orea, Tahiti.

1874 photo of ten men, including Colonial Museum personnel, assembled around the skeleton of a pygmy right whale

Caption

View of ten men (including Colonial Museum personnel) assembled around the skeleton of a pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata). The following Colonial Museum people are featured, from left to right: W. D. B. Mantell (seated on left, wearing hat), W. Skey (sitting on grass, chemist), A. T. Bothamley (standing, temporary assistant to R. B. Gore), R. B. Gore (standing, Curator/Meteorologist), T. W. Kirk (standing, Zoologist), A. McKay (standing, assistant Geologist), S. H. Cox (standing, Geologist), Mr J. Buchanan (standing), James Hector (sitting on box), and Mr Burton (seated on grass, taxidermist).

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Group with mounted skeleton, including James Hector, 1874, Wellington, by William Travers. Purchased 2001 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (O.030607)

Pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) on Collections Online