TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - More than 130 melon-headed whales were stranded on Hokota Beach, Ibaraki, Japan, on Friday morning, April 10. Local residents and coastgurads attempted to rescue the creatures that were beached along roughly 10-kilometre-long stretch of beach, PHYS.ORG reported.
A report by an AFP journalist says that despite the efforts of keeping the whales’ skin dry and to bringing them back into ocean, some of the whales were pushed back ashore by the tide. Some of the animals had died and many of them were badly cut.
"We see one or two whales washing ashore a year, but this may be the first time to find over 100 of them on a beach," a coastguard official told AFP.
Melon-headed whales, also known as electra dolphins, are relatively common in Japanese waters and can grow to be two- to three- meters (six- to nine-feet) long.
In 2011, about 50 melon-headed whales beached themselves in a similar area.
Despite international opprobrium, Japan hunts minke and pilot whales off its own coast, and has for many years also pursued the mammals in the Antarctic Ocean using a scientific exemption to the international moratorium on whaling.
It has never made any secret of the fact that meat from the animals is also consumed.
The whale-killing in the Taji Gulf is documented in an award-winning documentary film entitled “The Cove”.
PHYS.ORG | FRANSISCO ROSARIANS