An eighteen metre long Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus, has died after becoming stranded on a beach on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, England, on Friday 14 February 2020. The animal, identified as a subadult female, was seen swimming in the area before it became stranded by the receding tide, and proved to be too large for Human volunteers to refloat before it died. A necropsy carried out by the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme ruled out plastic ingestion as a cause of death, and it is believed the Whale died as a result of its own bodymass crushing its lungs, as such large Whales are poorly adapted to life out of the water.
The body of a Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus, which died after becoming stranded on a beach in Cornwall, England, on 14 February 2020. Cornwall Live.
Fin Whales are the second largest Whale species, reaching about 27 m in length with an estimated maximum mass of about 114 tonnes. Fin Whales were hunted heavily until 1989, when it was given full protection by the International Whaling Commission. Since the introduction of the moratorium on Whaling the species has recovered well and is now only considered to be Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species (one step short of 'Least Concern'). The reporting of greater numbers of dead Whales on our
shores is often distressing, and can appear to be sign of more Whales
dying in inshore waters, but in fact this greater number of dead Whales
reflects a larger population of living Whales being present offshore, and is a
symptom of recovering populations.
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