A rare species of whale is said to have washed up on a beach in New Zealand.

Travers' beaked whales are the rarest in the world and no live sightings have ever been recorded. No one knows how many there are, what they eat, or even where they live across a vast area of ​​the South Pacific. However, New Zealand scientists may have made a breakthrough.

The creature that washed up on a South Island beach this month is believed to be a Travers' beaked whale, the National Conservation Agency said on Monday. The five-metre-long creature, a type of beaked whale, was identified by its colouration and the shape of its skull, beak and teeth after it washed up on an Otago beach.

“We know very little, almost nothing” about these creatures, Hannah Hendrix, a marine technical adviser for the Department of Environmental Conservation, told The Associated Press.

“This will lead to amazing scientific data and information that has never been seen before in the world.”

If the cetacean is confirmed to be the elusive Travers' beaked whale, it would be the first specimen ever found in a condition that would allow scientists to dissect it, allowing them to map the whale's relationship to the few other specimens of the species that have been found, learn what it eats and perhaps find clues about where it lives.

Only six other Travers' beaked whales have been identified, and the one found intact on the beaches of New Zealand's North Island was buried before DNA testing could confirm its identity, Ms.^I Hendrix, which thwarted any possibility of studying it.

The stranded whale was quickly moved to cold storage this time, the conservation agency said, and researchers will work with iwi, from the local Maori community, to plan how to examine it.

New Zealand's indigenous people consider whales a sacred treasure of cultural significance. In April, Pacific indigenous leaders signed a treaty recognizing whales as “legal persons,” although such a declaration is not reflected in the laws of participating nations.

Nothing is currently known about the whales’ habitat. The creatures dive deep to feed, and likely surface so rarely that it has been impossible to pinpoint their location outside the South Pacific, home to some of the world’s deepest ocean trenches, Ms.^I Hendrix.

“It’s very difficult to do research on marine mammals if you don’t see them in the sea,” she said. “It’s just a needle in a haystack. You don’t know where to look.”

Months to get results

The Environmental Protection Agency said genetic testing to confirm the whale's identity could take months.

Kirsten Young, a professor at the University of Exeter in England who has studied Travers' beaked whales, explained that it took “many years and a huge effort by researchers and local people” to identify these “incredibly mysterious” mammals.

“This discovery makes me wonder: How many of them are there in the deep ocean and how do they live?” said M.^I Youth in email.

The first Travers' beaked whale bones were discovered in 1872 on Pitt Island, New Zealand. Another was found on an offshore island in the 1950s, and a third was found on Chile's Robinson Crusoe Island in 1986. DNA sequencing in 2002 proved that all three specimens belonged to the same species—and that it was a different species from other beaked whales.

Researchers studying the mammals have never been able to confirm whether the species is extinct. Then, in 2010, two entire whales, both dead, washed up on a New Zealand beach. Initially mistaken for one of New Zealand’s 13 other common beaked whale species, tissue samples taken after they were buried revealed them to be a mystery species.

New Zealand is a hotspot for whale strandings, with more than 5,000 incidents recorded since 1840, according to the Department of Conservation.

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