A dead young male sperm whale has washed up in the Essequibo Islands region (Pomeroon-Supenaam) over the weekend.
The already decomposing mammal was first spotted at the Wakenaam shore on Saturday before being carried away by tides to Troolie Island on Sunday morning.
National Wildlife Management Committee official Annette Arjoon revealed the discovery on her Facebook page.
“[I] can’t be 100% sure, but it looks like a juvenile sperm whale and the photos were from Wakenaam yesterday and Troolie Island this morning at 6:40 am,” she posted.
<<<Inews>>> understands that Arjoon was informed about the whale sometime around midday on Sunday by fishermen who spotted the dead mammal.
The fishermen are reportedly tracking the animal’s body as it continues to move with the tides. This discovery comes just over four years after a six-year-old male sperm whale measuring 45 feet washed up at the Kitty seawall.
According to Arjoon, she was “disturbed then [and] more disturbed now” given that it is “almost to the exact date”.
On December 16, 2014, the 30-ton mammal was found dead at the Georgetown shore after it was first spotted two days before off Mahaicony. According to reports, the whale had caught in the net of a fisherman out in the Atlantic and the man towed it closer to shore to get help to release the animal.
However, the gigantic sea creature put up a fight and to prevent his vessel from capsizing, the fisherman had to cut the seine and let the marine mammal go. The relevant authorities were informed and the following day, a search was launched, but the animal was not found until the next morning when it washed up at the Kitty seawall.
At the time, the mammal, dead but still warm, had the fishing net wrapped around its mouth with blood coming out of the blowhole. As the morning progressed, news of the dead whale spread and thousands gathered to get a glimpse of the mammal.
Initially, the authorities wanted to bury the whale along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway with the intention of retrieving its skeleton in the future to be placed in a museum for educational purposes.
However, advice obtained from several overseas experts resulted in the mammal being buried in a 22-foot grave a short distance from the spot it had washed ashore.
Meanwhile, about a month later in January 2015, a 15-foot whale was found entangled among fishing seines along the seashore at Number 37 Village, West Coast Berbice. The discovery was made by fishermen early in the morning, and efforts were taken immediately to free the animal, which, unfortunately, died in the process.
