A male juvenile humpback whale, who had been dead for days, washed up on the rocky shoreline of Onrus beach near Hermanus in the Western Cape on Monday, 24 May.
The Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit posted a picture of the male whale, and asked locals to be on the lookout for the animal’s baleen (baleen is a filter-feeding system inside the mouths of whales) which could help them determine the cause of death.
“The animal had clearly been dead for a few days, as most of the skin was already gone (hence the dominating white colour, which is blubber). This male had some scarring of cookiecutter sharks as well as from rolling in the rocks; no clear signs of the cause of mortality could be detected,” the institute said in a Facebook post.
They managed to collect basic samples of skin, blubber, barnacles and whale lice but because of how the whale was positioned on the rocks, they were not able to collect vital baleen samples.
“This baleen might still wash out in the next few days, so if someone were to find it, please contact us! As we approach winter, whale season is upon us. This means that we will not only see these magnificent creatures swimming near our shores, but we’ll also see more whale strandings on our beaches,” they said.
If you stumble across a marine mammal along the coastline, you can contact the Municipality on 028 313 8000 and ask for the Environmental Management Section, or you can call 060 9714301.
It is important to investigate and document such strandings to gather important information to possibly prevent them.
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