Gigantic whale died trapped in Cambodian fisherman's net

Anyone knows what species, and where is a picture showing the similarities, expecially the slenderness of this magnificent beast?

I've never imagined such huge whales can die from being caught in a mere fisherman's net! Time for greenpeace to show up in their anti-poaching boats in cambodian shores!

RIP

www.phnompenhpost.com...

Love the title of the video.. "unknown monster dug up in cambodia" lol....

reply to post by gardener


Maybe a Minke?

Less likely to be a Sei or Bryde.

But either would be possible.

reply to post by gardener


Appears to be a young blue whale:



Quite sad really. They are rare and their numbers are in decline. They grow considerably larger than the one in the video which is why I've suggested that perhaps it is an adolescent. I think it might be a blue whale from the way the lower part of the mouth appears.

DeadSeraph

Appears to be a young blue whale:

Oh, dear..



And the fisherman harvested the jawbone for traditional medicine market.

The article is over a year old... It also says its the second whale to be spotted in Cambodian waters since the 60's....

reply to post by gardener


It looks like a Sei Whale to me. Has the right shape. Looks too slender to be a blue whale. Also the coloring of the flippers seems wrong to be a blue whale. I think Blues have white on the bottom of their flippers.

BASSPLYR
reply to post by gardener

 

It looks like a Sei Whale to me. Has the right shape. Looks too slender to be a blue whale. Also the coloring of the flippers seems wrong to be a blue whale. I think Blues have white on the bottom of their flippers.

Tough to judge by color when it's in such an advanced state of decomposition, but you could be right. The Sei definitely has the same type of mouth that led me to believe it was a blue whale.

I'm not a whale specialist , but I do feel sad on how they display this whale if its some kind of freakshow.
It's not a monster it's one of the most friendliest animals of the oceans..

reply to post by DeadSeraph


I saw a doc on Nat Geo I think that mentioned that there may be very few pure bred Blue Whales left because their numbers are so low. I think they interbreed with Fins, but I think Seis are the third largest? So it might be not too far outside the realm of possibility to think the Blues could be mixing with them too depending on how closely related all three species are.

reply to post by gardener

I've never imagined such huge whales can die from being caught in a mere fisherman's net!

Whales are mammals so they drown if they can't surface. Very tragic.

reply to post by gardener


275,000 blue whales prior to 1900. I can't help but be skeptical how they figured these numbers. No doubt hunting took it's toll, but who was out counting blue whales prior to 1900?

reply to post by gardener


Here's a quote from my reply on another thread about this:

Riffrafter came closest. In fact, it's a Bryde's whale — unmistakably identifiable (if you know your whales) by the three ridges on the head — the central one running from the blowholes to the rostrum, and the other two flaring away to either side. Only Bryde's whales have this feature, and it is one of the ways in which we distinguish them from sei or fin whales. Here's a picture:

In the video, you can see the triple ridge quite distinctly when the animal is being lifted on to the trailer.

Awesome find! I for one didnt notice any triple ridge. I was overwhelmed by the scoop shape of the lower jaw.

Anyways, dont now how to tell if the article matches to 'new' vid.. The vid could have been recycled from last year, OR the vid is a new instance.

reply to post by gardener

Awesome find! I for one didnt notice any triple ridge. I was overwhelmed by the scoop shape of the lower jaw.

Look again. You can see light reflecting off them as the crane sling lifts the head on to the trailer. As for the 'scoop shape', this is common to all baleen whales. They have pleats in their gullets ('throat grooves') which enable their maws to expand and gulp tons of water at a time. They then filter the water out of the sides of their mouths through the plates, retaining all the solid matter. Which they then swallow. Look at the first photo in the 'Bryde's whale' link in my earlier post.

Incidentally, for any creationist types reading this, the fossil record of baleen whales and toothed whales shows a very clear progression of transitional forms between one and the other.

Whales are not vegetarians. They're all carnivorous; baleen whales live on zooplankton, ie krill and other small crustaceans, bait fish and minor cephalopods.