A 42-foot-long blue whale beached on the Revdanda beach in Alibaugh, died on Thursday after being stranded on the beach for more than 16 hours.
The behemoth sea creature weighing around 20 tonnes, beached itself on the coast on Wednesday evening, much to the shock of locals and tourists, who swarmed on the shore in hundreds to catch a sight of it. Numerous attempts by local police, naval officers and marine activists to help the whale get back in the waters failed.
However, activists who inspected the whale claimed it had several injury marks on its head and tail, indicating it being hit either by a ship or a barge.
"Injuries on the whale were visible. A necropsy has been ordered and only after that will we be able to pinpoint the cause of death," Collector (Raigad) Sheetal Ugale said.
Two bulldozers were pressed into action, to transport the carcass to a nearby jungle, where it was buried after veterinarians conducted a detailed investigation of the visceral organs.
Unexplained dolphin deaths
Environmental activist Rajendra Patil of Mandwa who inspected the dead whale, expressed concern over the unexplained incidents of dead and injured sea creatures washing ashore several beaches of Raigad recently.
"Since the month of May-June, a couple of dead dolphins, sea turtles and other fishes have washed ashore various beaches of the district," he said. However, since locals disposed the carcasses immediately, no necropsy or visceral investigation could be carried out. He added that porpoises with blackened outer skin, ruptured abdominal walls and at times with injury marks on the dorsal fins were witnessed by locals.
"These dead dolphins bore similar characteristics to the ones found on the coastline of Mumbai," Patil said.
Meanwhile, the necropsy conducted on eight of the ten dead dolphins that had washed ashore dead in Mumbai last month, were inconclusive and did not indicate the cause of death.
Iamin has secured all the eight copies of visceral investigations, conducted by the six-member team of Bombay Veterinary College, on the dolphins. The diagnosis report indicated that as most of the visceral organs were autolysed (destruction of a cell through the action of its own enzymes); therefore the exact cause of death could not be ascertained.
"The mammals died several days before landing on the coast, from unknown causes. Important organs, liver, spleen, pancreas and lungs, which could help us determine the cause of death were destroyed by the biological degradation process. Thus, we could not pinpoint the exact cause of death," one of the veterinary professionals said, requesting anonymity. He added that even the contents of stomach sent for forensic investigation and diagnosis could not establish the cause of death.
The Maharashtra government which had sprung into action after Iamin reported the dolphin death saga, had conducted tests on water samples drawn from 17 locations in and around the island city. However, all samples showed no significant rise in pollution level, acidification of seas or involvement of any other artificial factors which could have caused the deaths of the sea creatures.
Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam remained unavailable to comment on the issue.
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