Shepherd's beaked whale found dead on east Gippsland beach, Australia

Posted July 09, 2012 13:10:13

Map: Marlo 3888

A rare whale has washed up on the ocean beach at the mouth of the Snowy River at Marlo in far east Gippsland.

The fully grown female Shepherd’s beaked whale measuring 6.6 metres long, was found on Thursday night.

It is the first time that species of whale has beached in Victoria.

Photo: A similar whale breached off Portland, Victoria earlier this year. (Australian Antarctic Division)

Teams of scientists from Melbourne have spent the weekend breaking the whale down to transport its skeleton to Museum Victoria.

The museum’s collection manager in sciences, Dr Karen Roberts says it is a unique sighting because beaked whales live in deeper waters and rarely make it to shore.

She says the animal had quite a few shark bites but they could have happened after the whale died.

Dr Roberts believes the whale may have been over 50 years old.

“It looks to be quite an old individual, basically because its teeth are really worn down, there’s a lot of scarring,” she said.

“However when we did start to break it down, its unusual in that there was absolutely nothing in its stomach

abc.net.au

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