Dead Sperm Whale beached in Samal with Fishnet and Plastic Inside its Stomach

Last December 16, it was supposed to be a regular beach day for most of the locals in the Babak district of the Island Garden City of Samal. But on Friday night a sperm whale was found near the beach front of a resort.

The 37- foot sperm whale was discovered alive but injured by some residents on Friday night. By Saturday morning, residents and guests of the resort alike huddled around the already bleeding whale. And it wasn’t too long till the gigantic mammal lost its life.

The whale was towed to shore using a backhoe. Darrell Blatchley, a cetacean expert and the owner of the D’Bone Museum in Davao headed the actions in handling the whale. It was deboned onsite; its bones will be brought to the Bone Museum of Davao city for display. And the sperm whale’s meat will be buried at the Samal Sanitary landfill to be sure that it will be out of reach from the residents.

By Sunday afternoon, a report was released and revealed by the Davao regional office Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) that concluded on what things were found in the stomach compartments of the whale. Objects such as fish nets and hooks, plastic scraps, small fragments of ropes and short pieces of steel wire, was found inside one of the compartments.
BFAR- Davao regional director, Fatma Idris, released a statement regarding the report.

“Following the initial report, our impression is because the whale’s stomach has those contents; those created the sperm to be distress and later succumbed to death,” – Fatma Idris, BFAR-Davao regional director.

The Davao Gulf is no stranger to the experience of beached mammals. Just the other week, a smaller cetacean mammal was found washed up.