Rare pigmy whale washes ashore in Spotts
(CNS): An 11-foot pygmy sperm whale reportedly washed ashore near the Spotts Dock yesterday morning. The rare sea mammal washed up near the private property of Eldon and Patricia Kirkconnell around 11am on Tuesday morning (27 October). Kirkconnell told News 27 that, on seeing the beached whale, he called the Department of Environment. Pigmy sperm whales are said to be very rare and not much is known about them. News 27 said that when it sent crews out to the location the whale was gone. The DoE said it suspects the whale may have been pulled back out to sea.
Go to News 27 video and pictures
Category: Science and Nature
Any updates on this? Has the whale been relocated?
I went to see the whale yesterday and I was shocked to see a group of local youth kicking and punching the dead animal and laughing away (I have a photo of them). One of their mothers was watching and said NOTHING. Unbelievable. What is Cayman and the youth coming to?
At least it was dead. That Gervais Beaked whale last year was not, people watched it for over 8 hours before calling it in. The animal bled to death and was tortured by children whilst on the beach, it died by the time rescuers arrived.
I am horrified to hear that such beautiful and harmless creatures are tortured by young children. It does not surprise me though, I remember what happened to the blue iguana.
Where are the parents???
That is so sad… talk about zero respect for nature.
As for what Cayman is coming to.. I have no clue, all I know is that the Cayman of my youth is no more.
There must be US Naval Submarines nearby…
http://www.orcanetwork.org/news/shoup.html
"At least 37whales beached themselves and died along the North Carolina shore … of sonar can damage the whales‘ sensitive hearing system."
You’re right Dan. Problem is we don’t know if these cowboys in subs are in the area. And if you read this report they are allowed to do whatever they damn well please, regardless of the consequences. There is still a study on going at the Scripps Insititute in La Jolla, Calif. Where sonar blasts of up to 200 decibels are being transmitted at three minute intervals to be picked up at a station in Australia. This "study", funded by the Defence Dept., is to determine global warming and will continue- every three minutes- for ten freaking years. To marine mammals this will sound like an airhorn.
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) recently released a report that backs up previous claims of the harm sonar can do. The report suggests that the noise produced by the military is damaging to cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and in particular, rare beaked whales.
The report cites recent cases, such as the unusual behaviour in Hawaii of 200 melon-headed whales (Peponocephalaelectra) in July 2004. These typically deep-water whales were observed swimming in a tight circle in shallow water just 100 feet from shore, showing clear signs of distress. One of the whales was later found to have died. Thisbizarre and near-stranding behaviour coincided with a U.S.-Japanese naval training exercise.
A previous case documented the mass stranding of 17 cetaceans in the Bahamas in March 2000. Six of the dead animals, which included five Cuvier’s beaked whales and one Blainville’s beaked whale, were found to have experienced acoustic or impulse trauma that led to their stranding and subsequent death. The strandings also coincided with ongoing Naval activity using MFA sonar in the area.
When other sonar exercises have taken place, mass strandings and whale mortalities have occurred. These include cases in the Haro Strait off the coast of Washington State, the Canary Islands, Madeira, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in Greece.
Despite numerous scientific studies and reports proving the damaging effects of sonar, the US Congress passed a new bill that will allow the Secretary of Defense to permit the Navy to use sonar wherever and whenever they “need” to.
Why don’t you swim on out and check on that for us?
Looks like a tit for tat whale to me – you’ll see a blue one next
PPL and there stupid ass comments !
You must be one of the stupid people because it’s "their" not "there"
Have you nothing better to do than cruise around CNS spellchecking posts and mocking the authors? Pathetic.
See – told you it was a feriner dat rob margaritaville and run from de station ona gun charge – was a sperm pigmy who overstayed and damnded if we himmigrashun department nah get im good…
The gators got it, the gators got it…
Oh wait, it wasn’t a gator, it was a sunfish…
Oh,sorry, not a sunfish, it was a pigmy sperm whale after all…
Now it is dead.
Oh well, back to life as usual in Cayman.
Anyone want to chose another expat (species) to pick on???
Heard there were rangu-tang-u-rilla-keys in the midlands…
Big guys too – mek king kongh luk lik a pigmy…