| John Rubin, supervising producer of a National Geographic film on sperm whales, arranged last fall for the New Zealand Department of Conservation to notify him if any stranded whales were found while the crew was on assignment in Kaikoura. |  |
 | When Rubin was notified of two whale carcasses on a remote beach on the North Island, he chartered a plane for the film crew and Dr. Malcolm R. Clarke, an authority on sperm whales, to fly from Kaikoura to New Plymouth, the closest airport to the stranding site, which is near Hawera. All-terrain vehicles then took them down the cliff-edged beach, where the two dead sperm whales had washed up. |
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