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| Rare whales die on SA beach |
Knysna - Two rare True Beaked whales were found dead on the beach at Buffels Bay near Knysna, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Monday.
Knysna station commander Rein Hofmeyr said the NSRI was told about 16:00 on Sunday that a whale had beached itself.
A 4.6m-long adult was found dead in a rock pool.
"A short while later, a second female True Beaked whale, a 3.4m sub-adult, was found on the beach, also dead," he said.
Hofmeyr said that bystanders who found the whale said it had been alive and they had tried to get it back into the sea, but it washed up on the beach again and died.
Debbie Cockroft of the Centre for Dolphin Studies - which assisted in moving the adult whale from the rock pool to the beach - told the NSRI that the cause of the sub-adult's death was not known.
The adult was found to have a fractured jaw.
Adult was lactating
Hofmeyr said: "Dr Cockroft... was uncertain if the jaw was fractured before the beaching or if it may have fractured during the beaching which was across a rugged rocky area."
According to Cockroft, often a whale accompanies and nurses an injured whale, and that could explain how the sub-adult was beached.
The adult whale also had been lactating. Tests would reveal if it was pregnant or if there might be a lost calf.
Cockroft said that True Beaked whales were the rarest of the whale species, and finding two under such circumstances would help in scientific research.
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Rare whales die on SA beach
2007-07-10 04:11:00
Article by IOL News
Source: 
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