Early on May 13, several residents reported to police that “something large” was floating in the sea 200 meters from the shore.
When the coast guard discovered it was a dead whale. It was pulled ashore with a boat, and it took about four hours to load it onto a platform for transport, as the crane cables broke twice due to the weight of the animal.
“We will perform an autopsy and then display its skeleton in a museum,” Deniz Ayas, a scientist from Mersin University, told Anadolu Agency.
Saying that fin whales are the second largest in the world after blue whales, Ayas noted that the dead animal was “young.”
“This species is rarely seen in the eastern Mediterranean. Mostly they can be seen off the coast of France and Spain in the western Mediterranean,” he stressed.
Asked about the cause of the animal’s death, Ayas replied, “We can’t say anything definite until we see the autopsy report.”
