The Yilan County Government has buried a dead sperm whale that washed ashore over the weekend to avoid the dangers of it exploding, as had happened in Greater Tainan 10 years ago.
The dead whale was seen floating near the shore at about noon on Sunday, and later washed onto the Neipi Beach (內埤), just south of Suao Town (蘇澳), on Sunday afternoon.
Some thought it was a rubber raft, while others thought it was a giant turtle, according to a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
Photo: Chu Tse-wei, Taipei Times
When it washed ashore in the afternoon, the Yilan County Coast Guard Administration was alerted and 10 guards were dispatched to provide assistance.
They found the whale was already decomposing.
“The pounding waves rolled it back and forth on the beach, and blood kept spilling out. The stench was really terrible,” a coast guard officer said.
Officials contacted the Taiwan Cetacean Society, which specializes in rescue and treatment of beached whales and dolphins, to help make an identification.
“The sperm whale is a rare find. It is the first time in 10 years that we found a sperm whale on the coast of Yilan County,” an officer from the Taiwan Cetacean Society said.
The carcass was 9.7m long and 2.4m wide.
Local authorities had to make a quick decision about how to dispose of the dead whale, as its carcass was already starting to decompose and a foul smell began to permeate the air.
“Looking at its condition, the whale must have been dead for several days already before it washed ashore at Neipi Beach on Sunday,” said Wu Ming-feng (吳銘峰), head of the Animal Science Division of Yilan County Department of Agriculture, who was at the site to make the inspection.
“It has been hot in recent days, and the whale was decomposing fast, with the stench increasing. So we decided to dig a pit with an excavator and bury the whale right on the beach,” Wu said. “We worried that if we tried to transport it elsewhere, we might get a ‘whale explosion’ as happened before.”
He added that the decision to bury on site was made easier because the carcass was just too heavy to transport to another location.
In January 2004, a sperm whale exploded in then-Tainan City.
In that incident, the carcass of a beached 17m long sperm whale weighing 60 tonnes exploded due to pressure built up from internal decomposition, spilling its blood and innards onto the road as it was being transported through the streets of Tainan.
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