A pod of whales has been spotted in Tauranga Harbour this morning.

Alana was on The Strand and says she saw three whales come in from the port side "heading towards The Strand waterfront".

"I was actually fishing off the wharf when they came by. Gave me a hell of a fright."

Alana thinks the whales may have scared off her fish, as she ended up with an eel on her line instead.

The eel that Alana caught.

Whales are the world's largest mammals. Almost half the world's whale and dolphin species are found in New Zealand.

Whales and dolphins belong to a group of animals called cetaceans. They can be divided into two families:

Toothed whales have teeth, though these may not always be obvious. These whales use sound waves in a method called echolocation to navigate and hunt for fish and squid. New Zealand examples include sperm whales, pilot whales and dolphins.

Baleen whales have plates of baleen suspended from the roof of their mouths, through which enormous quantities of krill are sucked from the water. These whales are generally larger than toothed whales and include the largest whale of all, the blue whale. New Zealand examples include humpback and Southern right whales.

See information about common whale species below. Killer whale/orca are actually the largest member of the dolphin family.