—- Dispatches Joint Surveillance Team
IPNEWS: Health authorities in Liberia are warning against an unprecedented harvesting of sperm whale that appear ashore on the palm Bush community, in Duazon, adjacent the Silver Beach.
In a statement issued in Monrovia, Acting Health Minister Norwu Howard, said the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Public Health Institute of Liberia has dispatched a team of surveillance officers to conduct examination, disinfect and established the cause of death.
The Government of Liberia reassures the public of its determination to keep the public save through its active surveillance system amidst global emerging disease outbreak.
Acting Minister Howard stated that the eating of the dead whale without knowing what cause it to died is detrimental to the health of the population, especially at a time when the Government of Liberia continue to work in the protection of its citizenry in the containment of the spread of various emerging diseases.
“Feeding on a dead fish without knowing the cause of death could be extremely harmful to the population involved. These are ways in which diseases are spread from one person to another, leading to an epidemic.” Acting Health Minister Norwu Howard warned.
Consuming of dead whale meat and blubber can cause botulism – which can cause serious symptoms like vomiting, difficulty swallowing, partial facial paralysis, and more in humans – and that marine mammal meat may contain high levels of heavy metals and toxins.
In the morning hours of Thursday, September 21, 2023, a dead yellowish sperm whale was seen floating from the Atlantic Ocean to the palm Bush community, in Duazon, adjacent the Silver Beach 22 kilometers from Monrovia.
Some locals are said to be taking their slices of the meat from the dead yellow whale for cooking.
According to Health experts yellow whale is among the largest animal on the planet, weighing as much as 200 tons (approximately 33 elephants). The whale has a heart the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Its stomach can hold one ton of krill and it needs to eat about four tons of krill each day.”
Dozens of residents of the palm Bush community, and its environs were awakened to the discovery of a gigantic Whale on the beach early Thursday.
IPNEWS Reporter from the scene, says many of those who went over to see the dead whale were seen with cutlasses to get their share of the huge sea creature. They expressed mixed reactions over its appearance on the beach.
Eyewitnesses told our report that the whale was first spotted floating by some kids playing along the beach prompting excitement and help from the community dwellers.
“When the children call us, we all helped to drag the whale from the sea to the beach and got enough to carry now.” One of the whale harvesters told IPNEWS.
It is said that during the 20th century, the blue whale was an important whaling target and even after it was protected and commercial whaling stopped in 1966,
Wikipedia says “the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whale parvorder Mysticeti. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 metres (98 ft) and weighing up to 199 tonnes (196 long tons; 219 short tons), it is the largest animal known to have ever existed.
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