Tohora Voyages

TOHORā REFUGE

An isolated refuge

Southern right whale – tohorā found refuge in the Auckland Islands Maungahuka while around mainland Aotearoa New Zealand whaling wiped them out. Today, the Port Ross region is still the only nursery area for tohorā in Aotearoa New Zealand waters, and they thrive in this uninhabited archipelago, far from people.

Internationally recognised as important

The Auckland Islands Maungahuka is a World Heritage Site due to its amazing, and often endemic, flora and fauna. Tohorā and New Zealand sealions that breed here are protected by a Marine Mammal Sanctuary, and together with Campbell Island Motu Ihupuku, the subantarctic islands are an internationally recognised IUCN Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA).