Another dead whale has washed up on Himchhari beach in Cox's Bazar. It was seen stranded on the sand at 6am on Saturday (10 April).

Earlier, on the midday tide on Friday (9 April), a large dead whale had washed ashore. It was buried the same night at 1am, and the marine and fisheries research institute is protecting the burial site so that the bones and other parts can be collected for research.

The carcass of the smaller whale was found about 500 metres south of where Friday's whale came ashore. This whale, 25-30 feet long, is also half decomposed, said Samir Kumar Saha, range officer of the Sadar range of the Cox's Bazar South Forest Division.

He said the remains of Friday's whale had been buried in the dunes of the beach. More than a hundred Forest Department staff worked to stop the body being carried away again by the tide, joined by staff of various administration departments and curious onlookers. Veterinary surgeons carried out a post-mortem, after which the carcass was buried with the help of an excavator.

The range officer said the remains of another dead whale came up on the dunes at a different point on the same beach at 6am on Saturday. It is thought that this whale, too, had died earlier and drifted ashore. As on the previous day, efforts are under way to bury it before the stench spreads further.

Md Ashraful Haque, senior scientific officer and PhD fellow at the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute, said the animal that came ashore on Friday was an adult of the Bryde's whale species. The Bryde's whale is one species of the blue whale group, and it lives in our own Bay of Bengal.

He said whales usually travel in groups, and a whale that gets separated from its group often dies. The same may have happened with this whale and the one that came ashore on Saturday.

The whales are thought to have died at least 10-12 days ago, but the exact cause of their deaths is still unknown.

Although almost everyone is familiar with pictures of the blue whale, the largest animal on earth, very few people in the country have seen one in reality. Even people in the coastal district of Cox's Bazar have rarely seen one.

The 45-foot dead blue whale washed in on the sea tide on Friday afternoon, and the lifeless remains of another whale arrived on Saturday morning. As word spread, crowds of people eager to see a real whale gathered.

Once the news spread through the media and Facebook, curious people came to Himchhari beach from Cox's Bazar town, Ramu, Ukhiya, Teknaf and even Chakaria. Senior officials of the district administration, the Department of Environment, the Forest Department, RAB, police, BGB and the Coast Guard came to the spot, along with scientists from the Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute and the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute. A team of officials and staff including surgeons from the district livestock and wildlife departments came for the post-mortem.

Journalist Ahmad Gias said that around this time in 1990 a dead blue whale about 65 feet long had washed up at Laboni point on the beach, and its skeleton was preserved.

Ramu Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Pranay Chakma said steps have been taken, on the advice of marine and fisheries scientists, to preserve the necessary parts of the whale's remains. The burial site has been fenced off so that the bones can be lifted and preserved once the flesh has rotted.

He said the remains of the whale that washed up on Saturday would be buried in the same way.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.