DEAD HUMPBACK DRIFTED ASHORE
A carcass of a male humpback whale has drifted ashore close to the farm Unaós by Héraðs bay on the east coast of Iceland. Skarphéðinn G. Þórisson at the East-Iceland Institute of Natural History measured the whale together with the farmer at Unaós. Humpbacks can reach a length of up to 17 metres, but this individual was not more than 11 metres.
According to Gísli Víkingsson, whale specialist at the Icelandic Marine Research Institute, this humpback was obviously not an adult and it seemed like it had been dead for long. No one knows the exact cause of its death but Gísli says that it has become more common that dead humpbacks float ashore. One reason to that could be that the population has grown enormously lately and the more whales there are in the sea, the more also die.
The last time a humpback was killed by humans in Iceland was in 1954, but the specie was getting threatened. Now the estimated number of individuals is back to around 14.000 animals in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean. Some of them will make their way to Skjálfandi this summer - hopefully still alive!
Source: ruv.is
(LIA)