As of: March 26, 2024, 2:28 p.m
By: Marcus Giebel, Nico Reiter
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A bloated humpback whale carcass floats off a Norwegian island.
The fishermen keep their distance from the dead animal for good reason, as an expert explains.
Bleik – The open sea never ceases to amaze.
Dag Rydland, an experienced fisherman, has experienced many things on the ocean.
But a discovery during one of his most recent rides was so amazing that he posted it on Facebook and shared it with the world.
Atypically, a beluga whale was also recently filmed off the Shetland Islands.
Fishermen discover humpback whale carcasses in the sea: “Seen from a kilometer away”
The 24-second video shows an object several meters large floating on the surface of the water.
At first glance you might think it's an inflated ball.
However, it is actually the carcass of a humpback whale.
The photos were taken off the Norwegian island of Andoya in the Vesteralen region, near the fishing village of Bleik.
The discovery of the fishermen around Dag Rydland: The bloated body is the carcass of a humpback whale.
© Facebook/@Dag Rydland
“We saw it from over a kilometer away,” the newspaper
Dagbladet
quotes Rydland as saying: “It’s huge.
It protrudes maybe three meters from the sea.” The humpback whale looks like a balloon filled with gas.
Similar images are known of dead whales washing up on the beach.
Deceased humpback whale floating on the water: animals can be up to 15 meters long and weigh 40 tons
Rydland, who was traveling with three other fishermen, suspects that this humpback whale is full of capelin, as these small fish are found in many schools in the area.
The cod they caught earlier was also full of capelin.
Humpback whales also feed on these animals.
The fisherman emphasizes that the whale is fully grown.
Therefore, the animal could be up to 15 meters long and weigh 30 to 40 tons.
Humpback whale carcasses in the sea: Fishermen keep their distance for safety reasons
Rydland told public broadcaster
NRK
that they first saw the carcass at five in the morning.
When they returned from fishing five hours later, he was still in almost exactly the same spot.
He may have gotten caught in a net: "Actually, he should have moved further in the time we were out, so he's probably stuck."
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They didn't dare get closer than 100 meters because: "I was worried that it might explode or that the net might get caught in our propeller." The gas inside the carcass will eventually escape through a hole, then the Squirt stomach contents several meters away.
So he hopes the whale won't be driven ashore by then.
Whale researcher Tiu Similä from the organization “Whale 2 Sea,” which also offers snorkeling tours with orcas, also reported the sighting to
NRK.
Dead whales are often seen in the area, but this one was extremely bloated: “I think the tourists had difficulty understanding what they were actually seeing.”
Humpback whale about to explode?
After death, the body expands due to the gases
Nils Oien from the Institute for Marine Research provides the explanation.
Bacterial processes inside produce oxygen and other gases, causing the body to bloat.
Humpback whales have a so-called bubbling tongue, which describes the underside of their mouth.
Water and plankton end up there when they eat.
After death, the body expands accordingly and can burst.
However, the expert assumes that this will not happen and that the gases will escape on their own.
However, stabbing the carcass with a large knife could likely cause an explosion.
Rydland and his companions definitely didn't want to experience that first hand.
This tour on the water was spectacular enough: “I've been a fisherman for 27 years, but I've never seen anything like it.
I’ve seen dead whales both on land and at sea, but never anything like this.”
In Massachusetts, a humpback whale made headlines after it put a swimming man in its mouth and spit it out again.
He survived the incident without any major injuries.
But a baby humpback whale also pulled a surfer underwater.
(mg/no)
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