WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Spade-toothed whales are the world’s rarest, with no live sightings ever recorded. No one knows how many there are, what they eat, or even where they live in the vast expanse of the southern Pacific Ocean. However, scientists in New Zealand may have finally caught a break.
The country's conservation agency said Monday a creature that washed up on a South Island beach this month is believed to be a spade-toothed whale. The five-meter-long creature, a type of beaked whale, was identified after it washed ashore on an Otago beach from its color patterns and the shape of its skull, beak and teeth.
“We know very little, practically nothing” about the creatures, Hannah Hendriks, marine technical adviser for the Department of Conservation, said. “This is going to lead to some amazing science and world-first information.”
If the cetacean is confirmed to be the elusive spade-toothed whale, it would be the first specimen found in a state that would permit scientists to dissect it, allowing them to map the relationship of the whale to the few others of the species found, learn what it eats and perhaps lead to clues about where they live.
Only six other spade-toothed whales have ever been pinpointed, and those found intact on New Zealand’s North Island beaches were buried before DNA testing could verify their identification, Hendriks said, thwarting any chance to study them.
This time, the beached whale was quickly transported to cold storage and researchers will work with local Māori iwi (tribes) to plan how it will be examined, the conservation agency said.
New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga — 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 deep-dive for food and likely surface so rarely that it has been impossible to narrow their location further than the southern Pacific Ocean, home to some of the world’s deepest ocean trenches, Hendriks said.
“It’s very hard to do research on marine mammals if you don’t see them at sea,” she said. “It’s a bit of a needle in a haystack. You don’t know where to look.”
The conservation agency said the genetic testing to confirm the whale's identification could take months.
It took “many years and a mammoth amount of effort by researchers and local people” to identify the “incredibly cryptic” mammals, Kirsten Young, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter who has studied spade-toothed whales, said in emailed remarks.
The fresh discovery “makes me wonder — how many are out in the deep ocean and how do they live?” Young said.
The first spade-toothed whale bones were found in 1872 on New Zealand’s Pitt Island. Another discovery was made at an offshore island in the 1950s, and the bones of a third were found on Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island in 1986. DNA sequencing in 2002 proved that all three specimens were of the same species — and that it was one distinct from other beaked whales.
Researchers studying the mammal couldn’t confirm if the species went extinct. Then in 2010, two whole spade-toothed whales, both dead, washed up on a New Zealand beach. Firstly mistaken for one of New Zealand’s 13 other more common types of beaked whale, tissue samples — taken before they were buried — later revealed them as the enigmatic species.
New Zealand is a whale-stranding hotspot, with more than 5,000 episodes recorded since 1840, according to the Department of Conservation.
In this photo provided by the Department of Conservation, rangers inspect what is believed to be a rare spade-toothed whale on July 5, 2024, after it was found washed ashore on a beach near Otago, New Zealand. (Department of Conservation via AP)
In this photo provided by the Department of Conservation rangers Jim Fyfe and Tūmai Cassidy walk alongside what is believed to be a rare spade-toothed whale, on July 5, 2024, after its was found washed ashore on a beach near Otago, New Zealand. (Department of Conservation via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady Wednesday after more big companies delivered profit reports that topped analysts’ expectations.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading, a day after breaking an eight-day winning streak, its longest of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 5 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 12:40 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.
Treasury yields were easing in the bond market as investors wait for the week’s main event, which will arrive Friday. That’s when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech at an annual economic symposium. The hope is he’ll offer clues about how deeply and quickly the Fed will begin cutting interest rates next month after it jacked them to a two-decade high to beat inflation.
In the meantime, more companies are joining a parade to deliver what looks to be the best growth in profit for S&P 500 companies since late 2021.
Target jumped 12.9% after the retailer said an important underlying measure of sales strength for the spring came in at the high end of its expectations, as traffic increased at both its stores and online. Its profit topped analysts’ estimates, and it raised its forecast for the full year.
TJX, the company behind TJ Maxx and Marshalls, rose 6.2% after it likewise reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. The retailer also raised its profit forecast for the full year and said it saw increased customer transactions at all of its divisions.
They helped offset a 12.9% drop for Macy’s. The company reported better profit than analysts expected, but its revenue fell short of forecasts. It also lowered its expected range for sales this year, due in part to “a more discriminating consumer.”
Worries have been growing about whether U.S. shoppers can keep up their spending and keep the slowing economyout of a recession. Inflation is slowing, but prices are still much higher than before the pandemic, and many U.S. households have burned through the savings they built up during that stay-at-home period.
Concerns have been particularly high for U.S. households at the lower end of the income spectrum. High interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve have made it more expensive to borrow money, compounding the difficulty.
That’s why the widespread expectation is for the Fed next month to lower its main interest rate for the first time since the COVID crash of 2020. The only question is how much and how quickly it will move.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury has been sinking since April on such expectations. It eased a bit further Wednesday, down to 3.78% from 3.81% late Tuesday.
A preliminary revision released by the U.S. government in the morning suggested the economy created 818,000 fewer jobs in the year through March than earlier reported. That's a big number and adds to evidence showing a cooling job market, but it was smaller than some had feared.
“We have long warned that the jobs numbers were unreliable and subject to dramatic revision,” said Nancy Tengler, chief executive of Laffer Tengler Investments. “No investment decisions should be made on these numbers.”
She's instead focusing on the longer term and said rising U.S. worker productivity is an encouraging signal for the economy.
On Wall Street, coal companies Arch Resources and Consol Energy both climbed after they said they were combining in an all-stock “merger of equals.” After merging, they plan to go by a new name, Core Natural Resources. Arch Resources added 1.7%, and Consol Energy gained 4.2%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3%. It was a much more modest move than some of its huge swings in recent weeks, including its worst day since the Black Monday crash of 1987.
Indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and Europe.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
The New York Stock Exchange is shown on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader takes photos of a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
