Three Wairarapa fisherman tried to rescue a group of dolphins which had beached themselves fleeing from orca.



Dolphins cornered by a pod of orca off the Wairarapa coast had to be helped off the rocks.

Dick Kai and his family were heading back from gathering shellfish near Tora on Sunday when they saw the drama unfolding on the shore below.

They first spotted the orca circling not far from the land.

SUPPLIED Kevin Kai helping dolphins get refloated off South Wairarapa coast.

"We saw them there and we thought we would zip across the paddock to the cliff face to get a closer look. That was when we saw all the little dolphins in against the rocks trying to get away from danger," Kai said.

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A pod of orca had cornered the dolphins in a small bay and the panicked prey were beaching themselves.

SUPPLIED Dick Kai captured a pod of orca menacing a pod of dolphins near the shore in South Wairarapa.

Kai filmed the episode on his cellphone and said it was the experience of a lifetime seeing this high drama of the seas.

He estimated there were well over a dozen dolphins and several orca that could be seen from shore.

His son Kevin and grandson Lincoln Thomson-Kai were able to clamber down the bank and get into the shallows to help.

"Then we started trying to herd out the ones that had beached themselves."

A fisherman from nearby also came to assist in getting the dolphins off the rocks.

Kai said the dolphins appeared to be terrified.

"Wouldn't you be if someone was chasing you for a feed?" he said. "I reckon they were pretty stressed out and disorientated."

There was blood in the water and one of family members initially thought a dolphin may have been wounded by the orca, but then guessed that the injuries were caused by contact with the rocks.

Kai said his son and grandson were proud that they could lend a hand.

"They were really chuffed that they could rescue them. Everyone loves dolphins, eh?"

From his layman's point of view , Kai said it looked like there were a lot of young orca out in the pod and it could have been a "training session" to show them how to catch dolphin.

The Department of Conservation's marine technical advisor Hannah Hendriks said if someone saw animals such as dolphins or whales in distress they advised them to call the DOC or Project Jonah hotline.

In this case, there was no cellphone coverage at the location, so that was not possible.

Hendricks saw the video of the people with the dolphins and said while it was admirable they tried to help, the best course of action would probably be to try and calm the dolphins and wait for the orca to leave.

"It was a gallant thing that they were trying to help the dolphins, but it's unfortunate that there might have been orca waiting offshore

," Hendriks said.

It was "not unheard of" to have this kind of animal behaviour happen off New Zealand's coast.

"They (orca) definitely do that with stingrays, herding them to shallower water, and I'd imagine they'd do the same with dolphins if they were trying to hunt them.

"If they had calves with them they might be trying to teach them some hunting behaviour."

* The Department of Conservation Hotline: 0800 362 468