A 58-foot dead whale washed ashore on Kuakata sea beach in Bangladesh’s Patuakhali district on Wednesday afternoon, drawing concern from marine experts and local environmental activists who said the animal appeared to belong to the baleen whale group.
The whale drifted in with the tide at around 2:00 pm and became stranded on the eastern side of the beach near the Jhau Bagan area, according to local accounts.
Several local fishermen said they had earlier seen the carcass floating in deeper waters about 15 kilometres off Kuakata. At high tide on Wednesday, the whale was carried onto the shore and got stuck near the beachside grove.
After being informed, members of the Coastal Environment Protection Movement rushed to the scene and tried to recover the whale. But the carcass was already partially decomposed, making immediate recovery impossible.
Local authorities are now trying to preserve the dead whale. If that proves impossible, the upazila administration is considering burying it.
KM Bacchu, convener of the Coastal Environment Protection Movement, said the whale was from the baleen group. He said it was believed to have died about a week ago, but stressed that the exact cause of death still needed to be determined.
Marine scientist and researcher Mir Mohammad Ali of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University’s Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science also identified the animal as a baleen whale after examining photographs of the carcass.
He said the sighting of a whale washing up on the Kuakata coast was an alarming sign for the marine ecosystem. But he added that a scientific examination or necropsy was essential to determine the actual cause of death.
According to him, whales that are dead or weakened can wash ashore for several reasons, including entanglement in fishing nets, ship strikes, illness, plastic pollution, food shortages or ocean currents.
