10-metre whale found off Bahrain coast

An 11 metre-long dead whale was discovered off Bahrain coast yesterday morning , said Al-Ayyam today. Official authorities were alerted immediately after finding the Cetacean animal washed up near an islet “Fisht” to the north of Bahrain”, said the daily quoting an official source. A team of marine specialists was dispatched to the area to examined the 11-metre-long animal and ensure it was dead. The whale which hit the headline in the daily paper today was dragged ashore after dying. . “Such incidents are rare in the Arabian Gulf waters as such species of Cetaceans are considered vulnerable as they find it difficult to survive in warm surface waters”, the official source told Al-Ayyam. “This is probably the second or third time such a huge Cetacean animal is found off Bahrain coast”, he said, citing recurrent cases of dead sharks, dolphins and other marine species found washed up ashore. In 2010, the corpse of a 10-metre-long dead whale was discovered near Khalifa bin Salman Seaport and was handed over to the Bahrain National Aquaculture Centre in Eker for preservation. Meanwhile, a fisherman told Al-Ayyam newspaper that the cetacean was discovered dead near Al-Muhammadia island, off the Northern Governorate.