page_title: Hauraki Gulf
section_title: Species
hierarchical_section_title: Hauraki Gulf / Ecology / Species
caption_attribution_description: English: A passenger enjoys some up-close interaction with an Orca (Killer Whale) just outside Auckland city, New Zealand.
context_page_description: The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km², and lies between, in anticlockwise order, the Auckland Region, the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula, and Great Barrier Island. Most of the gulf is part of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
  Hauraki is Māori for north wind. In 2014, the gulf was officially named Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "the mournful sea" for Tīkapa Moana.
context_section_description: Some particular common or known animals include bottlenose and common dolphins, the latter sometimes seen in "super schools" of 300-500 animals or more, while various species of whales and orcas are a relatively common sight. There are approximately 25 species of marine mammals in the gulf. Nearly a third of the world's marine mammal species live in or visit the Marine Park.
  Among larger cetaceans, Bryde's whales are residents and relatively common in the Gulf, and their presence in these busily travelled waters leads to a large number of ship strikes, with sometimes several of the whales dying each year from collisions with shipping vessels or sport boats. The population remaining is estimated to be between 100-200. In recent years, increases in numbers of migrating baleen whales are confirmed long after the end of hunting era. These are humpback whales, southern blue whales, pygmy blue whales, and southern minke whales. Less frequently, fin whales and sei whales are seen as well. For southern right whales, these whales will possibly become seasonal residents in the gulf as the populations recover (one of two of the first confirmed birth records on New Zealand's main islands since after commercial and illegal whalings were recorded at around Milford and Browns Bay in 2012). Sperm whales visit occasionally.
  Many of the islands are official or unofficial bird sanctuaries, holding important or critically endangered species like kiwi, takahe, brown teal and grey-faced petrel. Centred on the main conservation island of Tiritiri Matangi and Little Barrier Island, numerous bird species that were locally extinct have been reintroduced in the last decades, while there have also been some naturally occurring bird "re-colonisations", especially after introduced pests were removed from breeding and nesting grounds.
caption: An orca swims in Waitematā Harbour, with Auckland CBD in the background.
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