A complete carcass of a fin whale was discovered off the coast of Yilan County, the first time the world’s second-largest marine mammal has been discovered in its entirety near Taiwan, the Taiwan Cetacean Society said yesterday.
The whale washed up on Turtle Island (Guishan, 龜山島) early last month, it said.
The society wrote on Facebook that it received a report on Feb. 12 about a large baleen whale drifting in the waters surrounding Dasi Fishing Harbor (大溪漁港) in Toucheng Township (頭城).
Photo courtesy of director Zhang Hong-jie
A team was immediately dispatched to investigate and it captured rare aerial footage of the whale, estimated to be about 10m long. It seemed to have died recently, as its skin had not yet shown signs of significant peeling, it said.
However, the whale did not wash ashore and the case was initially deemed as a “sighting,” it added.
On March 3, people said they had spotted a large whale stranded on the northern coast of Turtle Island, the society said.
The shore is not safely accessible by land, so a team could not be immediately dispatched to investigate, it added.
On Thursday last week, the society said it was able to collect samples from the whale, with the assistance of the Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA).
The whale was already decomposing and its sex could not be confirmed, it added.
It seemed to have been a young fin whale, and had several fractures in its spinal column, although it is unclear if those injuries occurred before or after its death, it said.
The whale’s complete skeleton was extracted and moved to higher ground, and samples of its skin and muscles were collected and sent to the National Museum of Natural Science for analysis, it added.
On Wednesday, it was confirmed as a fin whale, a species second to blue whales in size, reaching up to 23m in length, the society said.
The fin whale is listed as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species after nearly becoming extinct due to industrial whaling.
Taiwan is the southernmost habitat for the North Pacific population of fin whales, the society added.
Separately, a humpback whale was spotted in waters off southern Taiwan in recent days. Local authorities dispatched a patrol boat on Tuesday to ensure the mammal was not disturbed by whale watchers.
Kenting National Park Service deputy director Chen Chun-shan (陳俊山) said that the marine conservationists made sure the whale was left undisturbed in waters between Pingtung County’s Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) and Houbihu (後壁湖) from about 10am to 5pm on Tuesday.
The park service and the OCA called for whale watchers to maintain a safe distance, particularly from mothers with their calves, Chen said.
National Cheng Kung University Marine Biology and Cetacean Research Center director Wang Hao-wen (王浩文) said that photographs shared online suggested that the whale might be one of four spotted last week in waters near Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱).
Humpback whales migrate south to Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines during the winter and return north in the spring, Wang said.
Although it is rare for humpback whales to come this close to Taiwan, further investigation is needed to understand why that whale moved south to Hengchun, instead of continuing north, he added.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS