Officials bury carcass of whale in Cox’s Bazar

Forest and livestock officials buried a large Bryde's whale yesterday, around three days after it was washed ashore dead.

The decomposed body of the 33 feet-long whale was noticed by local fishermen in Monkhali beach area of Cox's Bazar's Teknaf upazila on Wednesday morning.

Shawkat Ali, livestock officer in Teknaf, told The Daily Star that they performed an autopsy on the whale and found that it died due to gastrointestinal perforation.

Gastrointestinal perforation occurs when a hole forms all the way through the stomach, large bowel, or small intestine.

"This could have caused by a hit by a propeller or sharp object of mechanised boats plying in the sea", he said adding that they buried the mammal in Monkhali beach yesterday.

The whale weighed around two tonnes. It had a length of 33 feet, width 10 feet and height 4.5 feet, he said.

The death of cetaceans, including river dolphin (Platanista Gangetica), Humpback and Bryde's dolphin, have been a common scenario in the country's waterbodies raising concern over the conservation of the these mammals which are categorised endangered by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

There has seen 16 deaths of dolphins and whales in last one month in Patuakhali, Cox's Bazar and Chattogram districts.