THE skeleton of a dead whale found in Tolo Harbour on Tuesday will be mounted and put on display at Ocean Park, a scientist from Swire Institute of Marine Science said yesterday. The carcass of a 10-metre, two-tonne Bryde's whale was discovered by Marine Police on patrol near the mouth of Tolo harbour. Last week fishermen reported sighting a group of three or four whales swimming in the area. Scientists examining the carcass believe the animal had been dead for 'several days'. 'We still do not know what they are doing here,' whale and dolphin specialist Chris Parsons of the Swire Laboratory said. 'They are tropical whales so it is not impossible they would be here, but we have never had reports of them in Hong Kong waters. We have not been able to track the other whales with this one, so they may have already left the area.' The Bryde's whale is extremely rare and very little is known about the elusive creature. It usually feeds on herring or mackerel, neither of which are found in Hong Kong waters, but one Bryde's whale was discovered with 14 penguins in its stomach. 'Although it is a tragedy this whale died it is a great opportunity for us, scientifically, to discover something about this species,' Mr Parsons said. 'We will cut the carcass into small pieces and take the samples to the lab. 'We will be able to find out what they eat and how pollution has affected it. We will try to determine where this whale came from and possibly why it was here.' The 25-year-old female whale, which was approximately the size of a bus, had several abrasions around its mouth. This has led experts to speculate it may have become entangled in the police anti-smuggling net in Tolo Harbour. 'We cannot prove this, but it is one of the possibilities we are looking into,' Mr Parsons said. 'It looks like it was caught up in a cable of some kind. I don't think there is anything anyone can do to prevent that since this type of thing is so rare.' When scientists finish studying the whale, the whale will be buried until it decomposes before the skeleton is cleaned and displayed.
