Baby Whale Cast Ashore in Bali's Beach

Beraban (Antara Bali) - A two-meter long baby whale had been cast ashore in Nyanyi Beach in the Beraban village in Tabanan  regency, Bali, Saturday while three others were able to swim bank to the sea, helped by local people.

An ANTARA reporter said tens of people had worked hard to push   the black baby whale back to the sea, even pulling it using traditional boat "jukung."

"There were four of them. The other three which were bigger were able to be pushed back into the sea and never came back again to the shore," said Ketut Widayana, a local citizen.

He said, people realized the arrival of a swarm of unidentified-type whales ashore since in the morning. It took hours to pull them back to the sea.

"Actually, they were separated into two groups, the group of bigger ones were cast ashore in the eastern part of Nyanyi Beach, and the other group of little ones in the west. They all were alive when we saw them on the beach, cast ashore by big waves," he said.

The biggest whale was more than four-meter long. They believed they were young whales being separated while emmigrating.

People came to the beach to see the whales. "It seemed they had not enough strength to swim back to the ocean," one of them said.

The condition of the little whale was very bad with its skin full of scratches and several wounds. "We have tried to pull it back into the sea but again it was cast ashore. May be it was too tired and lost all its strength though it is still alive," Widayana said.

The case of living whales being cast ashore is rare in Bali.

Last January a dead whale was cast ashore in Batu Belig Beach in the Badung Regency. It was about 14 meter long and its condition had been bad so that experts from the local conservation agency were not able to preserve it.(*)