Coast Guard, fishermen find dead whale a weighty problem

VIRAC, Catanduanes—The Philippine Coast Guard and fishermen here found a dead whale, literally, a weighty problem.

So enormous was the sea mammal that the PCG on Friday asked local officials in Panganiban town, some 56 kilometers from here, to secure a dynamite so that its decomposing remains, found by a village official near the seashore of Barangay Cagradao on Wednesday, could be finally be disposed of.

Coast guard personnel arrived at the site on Thursday but managed to bury only a third of the 10-ton carcass near where it was found.

The PCG, headed by PO3 Jesus Cabrera, believed the use of an explosive would help reduce the mammal into manageable sizes that would make it easy to bury or, if left floating at sea, would be easily digestible to fish, said Panganiban Mayor Robert Fernandez.

Almost 12 meters in length and as large as a four-wheel truck, the whale carcass had separated into two with its tail portion floating in the shallow water while the head section sat atop a rocky outcrop.

Fernandez said he requested for the dynamite from the Department of Public Works and Highways in the province early Friday but has not received any feedback yet.

Fernandez said an inspection team, including an aquaculturist of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, was likewise sent to the coastal village to help officials headed by Jorge Potenciano to find ways to safely dispose of the whale.

The village treasurer, who first found the whale, said that to address concerns that it would pollute surrounding waters, the village council used two motorized bancas to try to pull the remains to deeper waters but failed due to the enormous weight.

Several years ago, a similar dead whale was washed ashore in another village in Panganiban but wave action and decomposition later reduced it to bones.