When members of the public stumbled on an enormous mass of remains washed up on a Welsh beach, they had no idea what this mammoth sea creature might be. Now, experts have confirmed that the carcass belongs to the second largest animal on Earth: an enormous fin whale.
"Fin whales are the second largest animals on Earth, trumped only [by] the blue whale,” says Matthew Westfield, strandings coordinator for Wales at the Zoological Society of London's Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP).
“There are certain features and traits we look for to identify a species, but even before doing that, the sheer size of this animal alone indicated that it's a fin whale.”
The team at CSIP respond to reports of stranded cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), turtles and basking sharks around the English and Welsh coastline. Their work to solve the mystery of how these animals died has earned them the nickname ‘CSIs of the Sea.’
The last time a fin whale washed up in Wales was in 2020 and only five (including this individual) have been found on Welsh coasts since CSIP’s inception in 1990.
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“There are lots of challenges to studying life under water, so our investigations are essential to understanding the threats that vulnerable marine species living around the UK face every day, and help inform policy decisions to protect them,” says Rob Deaville, CSIP project manager.
Although they were unable to perform a post-mortem on this animal – it was too decomposed by the time it was found – they hope to get useful information from its corpse.
“We've taken what samples we can for potential future research – such as skin samples that can be used for genetic analysis, or tissues samples that will help us see what contaminants and chemical pollutants this whale was exposed to during their life,” says Westfield.
“All this information that we collect from samples can help us build a stronger understanding of the threats marine life faces under the waves.”
Top image: fin whale on beach in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Credit: Marine Environmental Monitoring
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