A 17m-long sperm whale died after washing up on a beach in Bali, a conservation official said yesterday, making it the third whale that beached itself on the Indonesian island in just a little more than a week.
The male sperm whale was found stranded on Yeh Leh Beach in western Bali’s Jembrana District on Saturday afternoon.
“We are currently trying to pull the carcass to the shore to make it easier for the necropsy test and we will bury it after the test is concluded,” said Permana Yudiarso, head of the Denpasar branch office of the Indonesian Center for Coastal and Marine Resources Management.
Photo: Reuters / Antara Foto / Nyoman Hendra Wibowo
This is the third whale that has beached itself in Bali, a popular destination for holidaymakers, this month alone.
On Wednesday, an 18m-long male sperm whale was stranded in Klungkung District, on Bali’s eastern coast.
Before that, a Bryde’s whale weighing more than two tonnes and at least 11m long was found stranded on a beach in Tabanan on April 1 — its carcass already rotted when discovered by locals.
Yudiarso said that his initial suspicion is that the sperm whale found on Saturday also died of sickness, “just like the whale found stranded a few days ago.”
“The body looked skinny and sickly,” he said.
Yudiarso said that it would take at least three weeks for the necropsy test to be concluded, but forensic experts found some bleeding in the whale’s lungs and that its colon was filled with fluids.
Police have cordoned off the location to prevent people from stealing the mammal’s meat or body parts.
In 2018, a sperm whale was found dead in Indonesia with more than 100 plastic cups and 25 plastic bags in its stomach, raising concerns about the Southeast Asian nation’s massive marine garbage problem.
Indonesia is the world’s second-biggest contributor to marine debris after China.
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