Khaleej Times

Huge dead whale washes ashore on Khor Fakkan beach

- afkarali@khaleejtim­es.com Afkar Abdullah

sharjah — A 27-metre long dead whale washed ashore on Khor Fakkan beach on Monday morning.

The whale was found motionless and floating in the water by fishermen who immediatel­y informed the authoritie­s.

The Khor Fakkan Municipali­ty, in coordinati­on with the Sharjah Environmen­t and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA), set up a team to tow off the mammal.

Hana Al Suwaidi, director of EPAA, said that as soon as they received informatio­n, an EPAA

It took a lot of time to remove whale. The team transferre­d it to Khor Fakkan protected area Hana Al Suwaidi, director of EPAA

team, along with workers from the Khor Fakkan Municipali­ty, rushed to the site. “It took a lot of time to remove the whale. The team transferre­d it to Khor Fakkan protected area for testing and to determine its species as well as the cause of death. It might be a blue whale or a humpback whale,” Al Suwaidi said. It’s assumed that the whale might have died in a collision with a ship’s propeller.

After testing, the carcass of the whale will be buried in Al Germ protected areas and its skeleton will be put on display in the museum to be opened in Kalba next year.

An official from the Khor Fakkan Municipali­ty said that they had to use huge equipment and deploy a large number of workers to remove the whale as it was very heavy. The whale apparently died on Sunday, he added, and pointed out it had injury marks in its body, so it might have been hit by a strong object such as a ship’s propeller.

 ?? Photo by M. Sajjad ?? People watch the motionless whale that was found on Khorfakkan beach in Sharjah on Monday mornind. It was found floating in the water by some fisherman.—
Photo by M. Sajjad People watch the motionless whale that was found on Khorfakkan beach in Sharjah on Monday mornind. It was found floating in the water by some fisherman.—

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