Beached whale has gigantic swollen tongue
Marine biologists are investigating why an endangered finback whale washed up dead on a Cape Cod beach.
Sightseers examine a forty foot finback whale which washed up on Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Julie Henry
The 45-foot juvenile male whale was found on Herring Cove Beach, Provincetown, last week. Beach goers were amazed by the size of the mammal's swollen tongue, which looked like a giant balloon sticking out of its mouth.
A spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said the tongue was swollen by gas created in the decomposition process.
The whale weighs about 10 tons. Researchers examined the carcass for signs of trauma but could not discover any.
"From what we have seen there is no indication of any type of vessel strike or propeller strike," said a spokesman for the charity's marine mammal rescue and research programme. "But we still need to see the other side and do the complete internal exam."
Observers had seen the whale floating dead in the shore in Cape Cod Bay, and the carcass came in "extremely quickly," pushed by strong winds said Craig Thatcher, the North District ranger at Cape Cod National Seashore.
No comments:
Post a Comment