Pygmy sperm whale beaches in Cayman islands

This video is called Professor Malcolm Clarke talks about his research into Pygmy Sperm Whales.

By Norma Connolly:

Pygmy Sperm Whale washes up at Beach Bay

08 February 2013

A Pygmy Sperm Whale washed up at Beach Bay Thursday night.

The animal was apparently alive when local residents called to alert the Department of Environment of the stranding, but had died by the time department staff got to the beach.

Tim Austin, department deputy director, and other staff secured the whale at the site overnight.

“It measured 2.75 meters [9 feet] in length and probably weighed around 650 pounds… There were no obvious signs as to why it stranded and died but perhaps the necropsy will tell us more,” said Mr. Austin.

The whale was transported to St. Matthew’s University for a necropsy Friday morning.

The animal had lost skin from lying on the rocks and was bleeding from those wounds.

“It’s not our first stranding of this species, but it is not a common occurrence,” Mr. Austin said.

The Department of Environment has reported the stranding to the Caribbean Stranding Network and US Stranding Network and is collecting samples to assist in regional research and reporting.

“This species lives at sea in deep water feeding on deepwater squid and is rarely seen due to its habit of surfacing quietly and slowly and hanging motionless in the water,” said Mr. Austin.

A comment about this, at cayCompass.com:

Posted by Banana Republic on 2/8/2013 2:08:32 PM

Last time this happened I proposed salvaging this rare whale and having the skeletal remains assembled and put on display for public viewing.

The end result was having it towed out to sea and turned into fish bait because the smell offended ‘people’ who were staying along that particular beachfront and demanded immediate relief for their self-centered selves as opposed to saving it for posterity’s sake.

They put their ‘noses’ ahead of this very infrequent opportunity rather than allowing others the chance to see something so scarce.

It’s a given that 99.99 percent of us will never see a live pygmy sperm whale in our lifetimes, along our shores, so let’s take advantage of this situation.

This creature is going along the path of the dinosaurs.

A request to St. Matthew’s University; please don’t throw this one back into the sea or the GT dump.

I’d rather see something rather than nothing.

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