A female pilot whale that washed up on the Cayman Brac coastline last week may have died in childbirth.
The whale was spotted around 10am on Thursday, 28 March, on South Side by a staff member at the Le Soleil d’Or resort, who alerted the Department of Environment.
The Department of Environment told the Cayman Compass that Nick Ebanks, its officer on the Brac, responded and checked the deceased whale, which showed no obvious signs of trauma.
The whale appeared to have recently given birth and “might have had some other complications” which led to its death, the DoE said.
DoE shark project officer Johanna Kohler, who holds a PhD in shark ecology, told the Compass that “cetaceans are known to abort pregnancy when conditions are not right so if there were complications with that, it might be a possible explanation for the mortality”.
There were no reported sightings of pilot whale calves in the area.
Removing the approximately 14-foot-long, 700-800-pound whale posed a challenge.
“Tourists and visitors for the Easter weekend were getting ready for lunch at the Beach Club where the whale was and we realised we couldn’t move it or push it out to sea because of its size and weight,” the DoE said.
Public Works manager Justin Bodden and his team were then called in to assist and they immediately responded, according to the DoE.
Operator Edison Lee Howell, using a clamshell loader, hoisted the whale out of the water.
At present, the Brac does not have an incinerator so Howell instead transported the whale to the landfill biohazard area for disposal.
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