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The Department of Conservation (DOC) is appealing for information to help them understand what happened to injure a whale, and kill another in Kaikōura.
Gavin Finch, operations manager for South Marlborough and Renwick, said it began with reports from members of the public and a local whale watch tourism company of an injured sperm whale on 29 December.
Then, on 1 January, a fishing vessel spotted a dead whale from a distance - the species of which is unknown.
Finch said it was "very hard to say yes or no" on whether the two whales were one and the same.
"The best chance we have now is for the injured whale to be spotted again."
Nature would "take its course" with the dead whale - there was nothing DOC could legally do beyond 12 nautical miles from shore, Finch said.
Beyond the initial sightings, DOC had received no further information from the public which could help them figure out what had happened.
"There's multiple things [it could be]," he said.
"It could potentially be a boat strike, or some kind of entanglement that it's managed to release itself from."
DOC was not looking actively searching for the injured whale, nor seeking to provide it veterinary care - treating a whale while it was swimming around in the ocean would be "very, very tricky", Finch said.
"We don't have the resources to go following whales around the ocean, and from one day to the other it could be anywhere."
But they did want to prevent whatever happened to cause these injuries from happening again.
"If anyone does know of any information on these two incidents, we'd very much like to hear from them."
It is an offence under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 to disturb, harass, harm, injure or kill a sperm whale.
Anyone charged with this offence faces a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment or a maximum fine of $250,000.
