“Although the head and much of the body had decomposed, there was enough of the remains to confirm that it was a sperm whale, about 10 metres long,” Dr Kongkiat Kittiwatthanawong, Chief of the Marine Endangered Species Unit at the Phuket Marine Biology Centre (PMBC) told The Phuket News today (June 17).
“We believe the whale died at least two weeks before its remains washed ashore. We will keep samples of the parts that were recovered for further examination, in the hope that we may confirm the cause of death, age and sex of the whale,” he said.
Dr Kongkiat noted that sperm whales were rare finds along the Andaman coast, but added, “Recently a calf was spotted south of Phuket.”
“Usually, sperm whales will search for food and stay very deep in the ocean, though our records show that 12 years ago, 16 sperm whales were recorded as seen in the Andaman region, and around that time eight were spotted near Phuket,” he said.