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I heard a rumour last night that a whale had become stranded on the mudflats at the head of Wigtown Bay. By the time I headed down this morning the poor beastie had expired. A group of marine biologists were already hard at work measuring it (17.5 metres nose to tail) and taking blubber samples for analysis.
Apparently it's a fin whale, also known as the finback, razorback or common rorqual, and is second in size only to the blue whale. This one is probably an adolescent.
It's an incredibly streamlined and elegant animal and a very fast swimmer, described by one naturalist as the greyhound of the sea:
Such small eyes for such a huge creature. I wonder what sights they've seen?
The Cooncil arrived with a digger to begin the task of disposal (it was already starting to get a bit whiffy)
Once they turned it over we could get a look in it's mouth. These are baleen plates, through which it strains seawater to sieve out small fish and crustaceans (krill and copepods):
The top layer of skin is paper thin and already peeling off in sheets, looking like black polythene:
A TV news crew were on the scene. They were looking to interview bystanders. I gave them a neat bodyswerve, and the whale refused to comment:
All in all a sad and undignified end for what was a truly magnificent creature. Some reports suggested that there may have been a second whale accompanying this one just before it stranded. If so, then hopefully it at least has escaped unscathed, back to the open sea.
Apparently it's a fin whale, also known as the finback, razorback or common rorqual, and is second in size only to the blue whale. This one is probably an adolescent.
It's an incredibly streamlined and elegant animal and a very fast swimmer, described by one naturalist as the greyhound of the sea:
Such small eyes for such a huge creature. I wonder what sights they've seen?
The Cooncil arrived with a digger to begin the task of disposal (it was already starting to get a bit whiffy)
Once they turned it over we could get a look in it's mouth. These are baleen plates, through which it strains seawater to sieve out small fish and crustaceans (krill and copepods):
The top layer of skin is paper thin and already peeling off in sheets, looking like black polythene:
A TV news crew were on the scene. They were looking to interview bystanders. I gave them a neat bodyswerve, and the whale refused to comment:
All in all a sad and undignified end for what was a truly magnificent creature. Some reports suggested that there may have been a second whale accompanying this one just before it stranded. If so, then hopefully it at least has escaped unscathed, back to the open sea.
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