A DEAD fin whale found at Levy’s Beach, Warrnambool, will be added to Museum Victoria’s collection after undergoing a decomposition process.
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Excavators using slings dragged the whale above the high-water mark on Friday and a post-mortem examination was conducted on the animal yesterday.
Department of Primary Industries and Environment (DEPI) incident controller Andrew Pritchard said an examination of the whale’s stomach contents yesterday found nothing that pointed towards a cause of death.
Mr Pritchard said there were no signs the whale had been struck by anything, but the carcase had been in an emaciated condition when it came ashore.
Further tests would be carried out on the whale to try to find the cause of death, he said.
The fin whale was the first to come ashore in Victoria and Museum Victoria wanted to include the skeleton in its collection.
The carcase would be covered with sand while the soft tissue decomposed and the skeleton retrieved at a later date, Mr Pritchard said.
A 500-metre exclusion zone had been set up since Friday around the whale and would continue today while work on the carcase continued.
Swinton Street, south of the Merri River, is closed and the DEPI will notify the public when access to the area reopens.
Mr Pritchard warned swimmers, surfers and other water users that while the whale had been shifted above the high water mark, there were still remains in the area that might attract sharks.
He said the area was a significant cultural one and the DEPI worked with Gunditj Mirring to get access.
Meanwhile, Warrnam-bool’s whale watching season is enjoying a late surge in time for the school holidays.
Keen whale watcher Peter Read said another southern right whale cow-and-calf pair was off Logans Beach yesterday.
It joined a cow and calf that had been at the whale nursery for about 10 days.
The sightings have rejuvenated this year’s whale watching season after another cow and calf left Logans Beach in early August, much earlier than the usual departure time from the nursery.
Mr Read said the sightings had drawn a constant stream of visitors to Logans Beach.
He said it was unusual to have new arrivals at Logans Beach this late in the whale-rearing season.
He said the calf that arrived with its mother yesterday was about two months old.
ehimmelreich@fairfaxmedia.com.au