February 2008

A 6.2 metre long, baby fin whale has been found on a beach on the Lizard. Cornwall's marine conservation groups fear it may be the same animal that was seen alive recently near Falmouth. Fin whales are the second largest animal on earth and only eight stranded animals have been recorded in Cornwall, the first in 1781.

Local resident Derek Chapman had watched the whale swimming back and fore just off the beach at Porthallow the day before it stranded. He was very concerned to see it come in so close to the shore and realised that this was unusual. When he later found it among the rocks, his neighbour reported the finding to Jan Combe, a member of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Marine Strandings Network and Jan, together with other volunteers, went to record and photograph the animal.

Jan has been recording many stranded marine animals on the Lizard over the last 10 years but this was the first whale she had recorded. "It had been seen off the beach for a few days and a local fisherman told me that the animal he saw was much larger than this. One animal even followed his friend's boat for a while. We recorded the whale as the tide was coming in and luckily we had just enough time to take all our measurements and samples for scientific research."

Jan Loveridge, one of the Network's coordinators, takes up the story: "When we were first called out, we assumed it would be a minke whale, and the story of a whale following a boat pointed to it being a minke, as they can be quite curious. We couldn’t believe that what we actually had was a very young fin whale which, at that length, could have only recently been born. The last fin whale we had in 2004 was over 15 metres long and they can grow up to 22 metres.

There was no obvious cause for it stranding. Possibly it became separated from its mother as one of the local residents had told us that he thought he'd seen two animals. He also said there were a lot of ships in the bay around that time and this might have disorientated it. Whatever the reason, it's very sad. This species has struggled to survive because of human exploitation and to lose such a young animal is tragic.

We went back the next day to see if it had rolled over so we could examine the other side but, to our surprise, it had washed out on the tide despite being wedged behind a large rock."

Two weeks earlier, members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) had been monitoring a whale that was first seen off Swanpool Beach, in Falmouth. It was behaving in an unusual way, possibly indicating that it was sick or injured. "A whale this close inshore is not a good sign and we were very worried it might strand alive" said Dave Jarvis, BDMLR Coordinator for Cornwall. "We watched it until after dark and patrolled the beaches to make sure it hadn't stranded, but then it disappeared from the area. As we couldn't see it close up, we can't be sure that the whale at Porthallow was the same whale we'd be monitoring - or even a member of the same species - but two whales of different species would be a pretty unusual coincidence and we do know that fin whales have been seen off Cornwall recently."

Fin whales are toothless, filter-feeders, feeding on small fish, squid and crustaceans. Their numbers have been severely depleted by whaling in the past and the species is now endangered. The International Whaling Commission issued a moratorium on commercial hunting of this whale, although Iceland and Japan have announced that they intend to begin hunting them again and during the 2008 season, Japan has said that it will kill a quota of 50 whales.

The samples of blubber, skin and baleen taken by the volunteers will be analysed by the Institute of Zoology for such things as chemical contaminants, like PCBs (poly-chlorinated biphenyls), pesticides and heavy metals. These can affect the ability of cetaceans to reproduce but they also tell us a lot about the state of the marine environment.

The CWT Marine Strandings Network is the official recorder of stranded marine animals in Cornwall and, with the support of the public, has been researching the incidences and causes of strandings for over 17 years. It is authorised to retrieve animals for post mortem on behalf of the Institute of Zoology, with whom they work in partnership. Data recorded by the Network is analysed and published and is used in the Trust's campaign work for the conservation of Cornwall's marine species. The group's achievements were recently applauded by Andrew George MP in the House of Commons.

The Strandings Network would like to know if the whale reappears and hear of any stranded marine animals the public come across, anywhere in Cornwall. You can contact us at any time via our Hotline on 0845 201 2626.