Dead Bryde's whale off a Rio beach, Brazil

Reuters

12:01 21/03/2012

Rescue workers try to tow a dead Bryde’s whale off a Rio beach.

Body boarders were unmoved by the hulking carcass of a whale at a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The watersports carried on at Sao Conrado as rescue workers in an inflatable boat attended to the dead animal.

It was identified as a Bryde’s whale by the Aqualung Institute on Tuesday (Wednesday New Zealand time).

It is the same species as a whale that was

found off Waiheke Island in New Zealand earlier this year.

At the time, the Department of Conservation’s Phil Brown said Bryde’s whales spend a lot of time near the surface, making them vulnerable to being hit by ships.

“These whales are being killed at an unsustainable level,” he said.

Wikipedia says Bryde’s whales are baleen whales, the “great whales” or rorquals. They are considered medium-sized.

There may be up to 90,000-100,000 animals worldwide, with two-thirds inhabiting the Northern Hemisphere.

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video Dead whale floating off Rio Beach

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