Bryde's whale found dead on El Nido beach

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY -- A dead Bryde's whale was found Sunday morning on the shores of El Nido, northern Palawan.

Villagers found the whale at around 10 a.m. along the shores of Barangay Sibaltan, a beach area frequented by tourists. Its carcass was said to have deep cuts and wounds.

Dr. AA Yaptinchay of Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines (MWWP) identified it to be a Bryde's whale when shown with photos by the Philippine News Agency (PNA) Sunday afternoon.

Bryde's whale or the Bryde's whale complex, according to Wikipedia, largely thrive worldwide in warm temperate or tropical waters. Their blow is columnar or bushy, and sometimes they blow or exhale underwater.

Usually, they appear individually or in pairs, and occasionally in loose groups of up to 20 around feeding areas.The body mass of Bryde's whales can range 12-25 metric tons (13-28 short tons).

Bryde's whale is a baleen whale, more specifically a rorqual belonging to the same group as blue whales and humpback whales. It has twin blowholes with a low splash guard to the front. Like other rorquals, it has no teeth but has two rows of baleen plates.

The said whale is listed as Data Deficient by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. It is also listed in Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits international trade.

It is not yet known how the whale found its way to Sibaltan shore.

El Nido villager Alfred Arzaga, who saw the dead whale and took photos of it, said it is sad to see one washing up ashore.

"So sad to see these things happen... (sic)," Arzaga said in his social media account. (PNA)