Rare beaked whale identified at EL Museum

East London principal scientist Kevin Cole with the skull of the whale that washed up at Winterstrand last October. He has positively identified it as a True's beaked whale, a deep sea species that has never been sighted live off the South African coast. Picture: SUPPLIED
East London principal scientist Kevin Cole with the skull of the whale that washed up at Winterstrand last October. He has positively identified it as a True's beaked whale, a deep sea species that has never been sighted live off the South African coast. Picture: SUPPLIED

A whale carcass which washed up at Winterstrand near Cove Rock last year has been identified as a rare True's beaked whale, a species which normally sticks to the very deep seas and has never been seen live off the South African coast.

 East London principal scientist Kevin Cole said he collected the skull of the female whale which washed up on the beach last October and positively identified it after it was buried for four months and then cleaned by the museum's taxidermy department.

 “This is a significant find because stranded True's beaked whales are rare and the only scientific knowledge gleaned is from specimens such as this,” said Cole. “There have been no authenticated visual sightings of a True's beaked whale off the South African coast.”

 The first underwater footage of the species showing a small group of True's beaked whales which was filmed in the Azores in 2013, emerged last week, making headlines worldwide.

 

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