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Saba Conservation Foundation : Large dead humpback whale found

10 March 2017

It is still a mystery why this 12 meter adult whale died and where it came from.

The whale was spotted about 5 miles north-west off Saba! First, an accident at sea was suspected. From a far, it looked like a capsized vessel with a 300 meter long oil slick behind it. The Dutch Coast Guard was called and a helicopter was deployed from St. Maarten to investigate the situation.
However, through radio communication with Vincent Hassell at the Saba airport, a dead whale was confirmed. At around 4:15pm, a team on the Dawn 2 ferry arrived at the scene to take photos and video to gather further clues, followed by dive vessels from Sea Saba and Saba Divers.
As expected, a large number of sharks circled the whale. Some huge 4 meter long tiger sharks were seen, as well as a thresher, bull and blue sharks were feasting on the carcass.

The Saba Marine Park boat will continue to investigate with photo images and tissue samples, which will be sent to the Saba Marine partners at NOAA and Wageningen Marine Research in the Netherlands for analysis.

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