1234 Kolkata: A 15-feet long whale was spotted along a beach in Kakdwip under South 24 Parganas forest division on Thursday morning.
Locals and forest officials observed it was alive. Several residents attempted to guide it towards the waters.
But, owing to the approaching high tide, rescue operations were temporarily halted.
Dipani Sutaria, an ecologist researching marine cetaceans in India and with whom TOI shared some pictures, identified it as a Bryde's whale.
"As the high tide receded and low tide commenced, our team arrived at Lakhipur under Madhusudanpur GP to found it stranded in a creek. Rescue efforts are ongoing," stated divisional forest officer Nisha Goswami.
When asked about possible injury marks, Goswami indicated this could only be ascertained post-rescue.
She noted that whilst identification remains pending, it could also be a minke whale.
Sources indicated the creature was also sighted near Ghoramara on Wednesday. "This is presumably the same whale now spotted in Lakhipur," a source revealed.
Sutaria confirmed this represents merely the fourth documented Bryde's whale sighting in Bengal and the 60th in India. "Previous Bengal sightings include two from Mandarmani in June 2020 and another near Digha in Dec 2012," she elaborated.
Bryde's whale is a baleen whale, specifically a rorqual belonging to the same classification as blue whales and Omura's whales. It possesses twin blowholes with a low splashguard frontally. Two rows of baleen plates (rather than teeth) are characteristics of rorquals.
Bryde's whales like other large whales, sustain injuries from vessel collisions; get entangled in fishing nets and are impacted by ambient underwater noise as all rorquals, communicate via low-frequency sounds.
They inhabit the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, favouring highly productive, tropical, subtropical and warm, temperate waters.
According to Sutaria, the Swatch of No ground offshore between India and Bangladesh harbours a resident population.
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