Volunteers mourn death of baby orca Toa

Toa, the stranded baby orca calf, has died. Whale Rescue, an organisation that had been helping care for Toa alongside iwi Nga¯ ti Toa Rangatira and the local community, wrote on its Facebook page that the orca died last night.

‘‘We have to report that a little time ago Toa passed away, he rapidly deteriorated and vets on site rushed to his aid but were unable to save him,’’ it said.

‘‘We have no further details as to what happened, as you can all imagine we are devastated. No more updates will be posted at this time.’’

The Department of Conservation (DOC) also confirmed the whale died.

It comes just hours after a reported sighting of an orca pod on the Ka¯piti Coast, which was being investigated by air and sea yesterday afternoon. Toa was earlier reported as being ‘‘stable’’ at the Plimmerton Boating Club by DOC.

Earlier yesterday, marine species manager Ian Angus said two aircraft and a DOC boat had been searching the water in response to the reported sighting of what was hoped to be Toa’s pod, south of Raumati.

Toa’s condition had been deteriorating over the past few days. He had been cared for by volunteers for nearly two weeks.

Earlier this week, before Toa was moved back into a sea pen on Thursday from a swimming pool, DOC was reporting the calf as having injured pectoral fins and an injured tail fluke. He also had an inflamed eye, was more lethargic and was not vocalising as much.

Since he was moved to the sea pen, Toa’s condition was improving.

The baby whale was separated from his pod as they swam past Plimmerton beach hunting stingray on Sunday, July 11.

The baby whale followed two adults closer to shore where he appeared to be playing – ducking and flipping in and out of the surf, according to some local teenagers.

But when the adults turned back to deeper water, Toa kept heading towards the beach.

A wave flipped him onto his back and threw him, screaming, onto the rocks.