Stranded Blainville’s Beaked Whale, 2016
28 April 2023
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Seven years ago, on the 26 of April 2016, a Blainsville’s Beaked Whale was stranded on the reef at Kingston. I will always remember the community effort to attempt to rescue the exhausted whale, but it was too injured to survive. The poor thing was very battered, bruised and cut up after being caught on the coral reef.
It was amazing to watch the effort of the local community, as everyone pulled together resources to attempt to assist this unfortunate animal. The teenagers spent hours in the water and on the reef trying to return the whale into the seawater.
Sadly, the whale did not survive, but the photographs I took, and information collected will hopefully be useful for future research about the Blainville Beaked Whale.
I was contacted by a researcher, Wojtek Bachara, from Poland. He identified the ill-fated whale as a Blainville's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris), or the dense beaked whale, after seeing my photographs on Facebook. During the past years, I have learnt information about the whale which is really seen. Wojtek has published a scientific paper, about the Norfolk Island 26 April 2016 stranding, his was a joint Scientific Paper with my photographs. “First stranding record of a Blainville’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) on Norfolk Island”. WOJTEK
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BACHARA 1 AND BETTY MATTHEWS 2
This week I have looked back at the photographs I took in 2016 on that sad afternoon. I hope the next time I see a Beaked Whale it is a healthy Blainsville’s swimming in the ocean, and not stranded on the Norfolk Island shoreline.
Thank you to everyone who attempted to assist with the rescue of the poor whale.
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Betty Matthews
April 2023