Rawiri Paratene is well known to New Zealand audiences – as an actor, student activist, and more recently as one of the stars of the movie Whale Rider.
You can see Rawiri playing Koro in the film Whale Rider in this video clip on Te Ara:
http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaLife/TeWhanauPuhaWhales/3/ENZ-Resources/Standard/4/en
Following the success of Whale Rider, Rawiri has found himself more and more involved with whales. He and Witi Ihimaera, the author of the book Whale Rider on which the film was based, are now both trustees of the South Pacific Whales Research Consortium.
Rawiri recently had the chance to see for himself the work of whale researchers, such as Nan Hauser and her team in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. He also took time to attend presentations from researchers at the SPWRC meeting held at Auckland University earlier this year. That’s where we caught up with him.
Listen to Rawiri talk about being a trustee for SPWRC, and his first encounter with a whale “eye to eye”.
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/podcasts/whales/Rawiri-Paratene05Feb.mp3
There’s always something new happening in the world of whale research.
Anton van Helden, Te Papa’s marine mammal specialist, will be fronting Science Express @ Te Papa on Thursday 3 April, at 6.30pm in Espresso on Level 4.
He’s going to talk about some of the recent findings from the annual meeting of South Pacific whale researchers (SPWRC) recently held at Auckland University. These researchers use non-lethal methods to study whales – important at a time when some countries, such as Japan, continue to kill whales in the name of science.
He’ll also talk about new info on beaked whales (some of the whale species closest to his heart) – including a curious tale of a possible new species of beaked whale from Kiribati.
Anton van Helden with a Gray’s beaked whale skull Mesoplodon grayi
Viliamo Iese lives on Tuvalu, and recently attended the South Pacific Whales Research Group Consortium meeting at Auckland University in February 2008.
Where exactly is Tuvalu? It’s a 2 hour flight north of Fiji. Tuvalu is made up of 6 atolls and 3 islands – and some are only 5 metres above sea level – but it has a very small land mass of only about 26 square kilometres – spread over a vast area of the Pacific.
This makes researching whales and dolphins in Tuvalu particularly challenging! But with help from New Zealand, the support of the Tuvalu government and the efforts of Vili, the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu is all set to contribute to our understanding of whales in the South Pacific.
Listen to Viliamo Iese talking about whale research and cultural attitudes to whales in Tuvalu. (duration about 9 minutes)
Download Viliamo Iese’s interview (mp3, 8.66 MB)
Vili Iese (right) talks to other whale researchers at the SPWRC meeting, Auckland, Feb 2008
