Introduction

Use the online form to report a marine mammal sighting. Report Māui dolphin or entangled/stranded/deceased animal sightings to 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468) immediately.

Your sighting will help us look after marine mammals by providing information about population sizes, breeding rates and movement patterns.

Call 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468) immediately if you see:

  • a Māui dolphin
  • an entangled, stranded, or deceased marine mammal.

Use the online form below to report other marine mammal sightings.

If you have photos of your marine mammal sighting email them to us separately at marinemammals@doc.govt.nz. Include your name so we can match photos to the correct form submission. Please detail any specific conditions regarding their use.

Online sightings form

You must fill in fields marked with *

Privacy disclosure: To process your request or information, we need to collect personal information about you. We'll only use your information for this purpose and we'll follow the principles of the Privacy Act 2020. See our privacy and security statement.

Your details


Circumstances of sighting


Sighting information

Type of animal

Name of species – best guess or get help with identification


Photos and Video

Do you have any photos or videos of your sighting?

Upload a file below (smaller than 100 mb) or send your photos and videos to marinemammals@doc.govt.nz

Conditions of image use

Creative Commons Licence


Other remarks

Add any extra details including behaviour of animal, direction they were travelling, length of animal, distinguishing features for species or individual identification (particularly useful if no photos were taken or photos aren’t great quality)

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