A dead whale has been found on the shore of al-Qahmah Center Beach in Saudi Arabia’s Asir region, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture said Tuesday.
The Director of the Fisheries Branch in al-Qahmah, Ali Hamdi, said the humpback whale was first spotted about five kilometers offshore.
The humpback whale is one of the largest marine organisms in the oceans, with its adults ranging in length from 12 to 16m and a circumference of between 4 and 6m. This specific whale is of the baleen species and can often be found in the Red Sea.
Hamdi said that the whales enter the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf by swimming next to large ships and oil tankers coming in through the ocean, often losing their way and suffocating because of the hot weather, or crashing against the engines of tankers.
A committee representing border guards and fisheries, along with personnel from the municipality of al-Qahmah, has been formed to bury the dead whale about 10 meters from the beach.
The authorities are planning to display the skeleton in a museum in the region, once the body is fully decomposed.
