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Whale carcass washes up on Tinian
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Posted on Apr 27 2022
The carcass of what seems to be a sperm whale, measuring about 30 to 40 feet, washed up last Saturday at about 15 feet from shore on Tinian’s Long Beach, the side of the island facing Saipan.
Gilbert Borja, director of the Division of Fish and Wildlife on Tinian, said in a phone interview that the Department of Public Safety called him at about 4pm Saturday to ask him to go to Long Beach because a dead whale carcass had washed up on shore.
According to Borja, the carcass probably washed ashore “the night before or early in the morning because it smelled so bad” by the time Borja, Tinian Mayor Edwin P. Aldan, and DFW staff got there in the afternoon.
He said they observed that the whale had a big chunk bitten off its tail, which might be the cause of its death.
The Long Beach area was then closed off with caution tape to deter residents. However, there were already some residents taking pictures and videos of the carcass when Borja and his staff got there.
Borja called DFW on Saipan to see if they could get samples from the carcass. He was then informed to tie up the carcass to a big rock so it doesn’t float away until someone gets to Tinian to see the whale. However, Borja was later told that DFW Saipan is currently unable to get to Tinian due to funding issues, so Borja is awaiting instruction from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Hawaii on what to do with the rotting whale carcass.
Borja hopes that DFW Tinian hears back from NOAA in Hawaii soon because the carcass is rotting and stinking up the area under the heat of the sun.
Veronica Layugan, who was on Tinian with her friends for a leisure trip, later posted a video clip of the carcass on Facebook. When asked about it, she said, “The smell was crazy! It smelled like dead rat.”
Layugan said she didn’t see what was done to the carcass, but “I hope they do remove it. Can’t imagine what it’ll do to the waters if it’s there until now.”
The Long Beach area has now seen two dead whales wash up on its shores and one dead whale in Masolog Beach a few years ago.
