27-metre dead whale washes ashore on Khor Fakkan beach

Sharjah - The whale was found motionless and floating in the water by fishermen

A 27-metre long dead whale washed ashore on Khor Fakkan beach on Monday morning.
The whale was found motionless and floating in the water by fishermen who immediately informed authorities concerned.
The Khor Fakkan Municipality, in coordination with Sharjah Environment and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA), set up a team to tow off the mammal.
Hana Al Suwaidi, director of EPAA, said that as soon as they received information, an EPAA team deployed in the region along with workers from Khor Fakkan Municipality rushed to the site.
It took a lot of time to remove the whale. The team transferred it to Khor Fakkan protected area for testing and to determine its species as well as the cause of death. "It might be a blue whale or a humpback whale," Al Suwaidi said. The whale might have died in a collision with a ship's propeller.
After testing, the carcass of the whale will be buried in Al Germ protected areas and its skeleton put on display in the museum, to be opened in Kalba next year.
An official from Khor Fakkan Municipality said that they had to use huge equipment and deploy a large number of workers to remove the whale as it was very heavy. The whale apparently died on Sunday, he added and pointed out it had injury marks in its body, so it might have been hit by a strong object such as a ship's propeller or rocks.
- afkarali@khaleejtimes.com