This aerial picture shows villagers looking at a dead sperm whale that was stranded at Yeh Malet beach, in Klungkung on April 5, 2023. - AFP
JAKARTA (Xinhua): A sperm whale with bleeding wounds was washed up onto Lepang Beach in Indonesia's tourism resort Bali on Wednesday (April 5).
Putu Widiada, head of the Klungkung Regency Disaster Mitigation Agency, said Bali is a whale migration path and that the injuries were likely caused when getting trapped amid reefs in shallow waters.
"The whale was stranded alive, then residents and the rescue team pushed it back into the water," Widiada told local media.
In the previous week, several whale carcasses were discovered on Bali's Batu Lumbung Beach, on the shores of East Java Province and Timor Island. Six dead dolphins were found in East Nusa Tenggara Province.
The cause of the stranding incidents is still under investigation. Yudi Permana, head of the Denpasar Coastal and Marine Resources Management Center, said the reasons likely include extreme weather and seismic activities.
