Whale washes up on beach in South Thailand

A whale washed up on a beach in South Thailand’s Narathiwat province on Monday. Locals, rescuers, and police helped to push the whale back into the sea at Naratat Beach. However, the whale washed up again two hours later about 500 metres away.

Officials from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources believed that the whale might have been sick, and unable to handle strong waves.

A veterinarian was called to the beach, and identified the whale as a short-finned pilot whale. The whale was treated at the Marine and Coastal Resources Center before it was released back into the sea, The Phuket Express reported.

A few whales have washed up on Thailand’s shores this year, although not alive.

In October, a dead Bruda whale was found floating in Laem Sai Bay to the south of Koh Racha, Phuket province. Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources conducted an autopsy on the 13 metre whale, which raised more questions than answers.

The director-general of the department said the autopsy could not determine the whale’s exact cause of death because its organs had badly rotted.

A single plastic cup was found in the whale’s digestive system. Although the cup itself may not be the cause of the whale’s death, the director-general said people should avoid throwing plastic into the sea because it can kill marine life.

In August, the carcass of a male whale shark washed up on Long Beach on Koh Lanta Island in the southern province of Krabi. Officials made it known that this was a first for Krabi, no dead whale sharks had washed ashore there before.

Several Thai divers expressed their condolences. One diver said he believed the whale shark was living in the area between Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta. The diver added that the whale shark had been spotted a number of times but it disappeared about 10 days earlier.

After the recent incident in Narathiwat, the marine department was luckily able to treat the whale and release it back into the sea.