Recently rescued whale found dead

JOHOR BARU: The Johor Fisheries Department today confirmed that the carcass of a whale found beached Sungai Sarang Buaya river mouth is that of the whale that firemen and fishermen had rescued two days ago in Pontian waters.
Its director, Munir Mohd Nawi, said the mammal is from the endangered Balaenoptera borealis species, also known as Sei whale, the third largest in the whale family.
He said a forensics team from the Turtles and Marine Ecosystem Centre was examining the carcass at the department's jetty to find out the cause of death.
"This is the same whale that was found and rescued in Pontian waters a couple of days ago," he said.
It was recently reported that a whale was rescued by a group of people in Pantai Rambah, Pontian, on Monday.
However the mammal was found beached again in shallow waters along Sungai Sarang Buaya on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, environment activist Vincent Chow said the whale may have lost its way on its migration route.
"These whales should be in the Indian Ocean during their migration. They probably mistakenly swam into the narrow Malacca Straits due to the sounds of vessels," Chow told theSun.
Chow, who is also president of Johor chapter of Malaysian Nature Society, said whales use sonar signals to guide them.
"The Malacca Straits is very busy with many vessels and the sounds of these vessels may have disturbed the whale's sonar and led it away from its migration route and into the Malacca Straits," he added.
"There were too many sounds that confused the whale," he added.