Giant carcass of ‘blue whale’ washes ashore along Uran coast

The decomposed carcass of a 40-foot whale, possibly a blue whale, was washed ashore at Khar Danda in Uran, Navi Mumbai, early on Thursday morning. This is the eighth recorded case of a whale carcass being washed ashore in Maharashtra since 2015, and the 85th marine animal death in the past three years. Forest officials said the carcass could be that of a blue whale.

Officials from the Maharashtra mangrove cell said the carcass would be buried at the site itself, after tissue samples had been collected. “It appears to be a blue whale and is estimated to weigh around 20 tonnes. Our team has collected samples and it will be ascertained only after the results,” said N Vasudevan, additional principal chief conservator of forests, adding, “There could be many reasons for its death, including infection, old age, shipping noise, or it could have been hit by a ship, or if there was any kind of disturbance in the sea.”

Fishermen from the area had spotted the carcass around 8.30 am on Thursday. “It looks like the mammal died quite a long while ago at sea. You can even see bones jut- ting from the body,” said Damodar Tandel of Akhil Bharatiya Machhimar Samiti, adding, “In 1978 also, a 48-foot-long dead blue whale had washed ashore.”

The blue whale falls in the list of species threatened with extinction. Blue whales are said to be the largest animals ever known to have lived on earth.

Independent experts also said the mammal looks like a blue whale. “It seemed like a blue whale, but it is difficult to ascertain when it died because the body was severely decomposed,” said Ketki Jog, member, Konkan Cetacean Research Team, who works in the field of marine mammal research along India’s west coast.