2 dead orcas found in East China Sea sent for research

The two killer whale carcasses found recently in the East China Sea near Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, have been sent to a university scientific institute where they will be studied.

The orcas, both over four meters long, were caught by a fisherman surnamed Lin on February 16, and were sent to the scientific research team of Nanjing Normal University in neighboring Jiangsu Province on Saturday, the Hangzhou Daily reported on Wednesday.

Lin said the killer whales were already dead when he caught them in the East China Sea, 40 hours by ship from Ningbo. Even though Lin did not recognize what kind of “fish” he had caught, he realized they might be a protected species and reported his find to the local fishery department, who contacted the university.

“Nowadays fishermen usually have some knowledge of animal protection. When they catch protected fish, they free them immediately; if the fish they catch are dead, they contact certain department,” said a staffer of local fishery bureau.

“Changjingyin,” a Weibo account about whales with more than 146,000 followers, noted that China has recorded less than 20 sightings of orcas in its waters, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s in the more northerly Bohai and Yellow seas.