Australis Mar reported finding 15m large cetacean at one of its sites in Chile.
Chilean aquaculture Sernapesca reports that the salmon farmer Australis Mar informed it that discovered the carcass of a sei whale at one of its sites.
The sei whale, around 15m in length, is believed to have died after it became entangled in one of the nets at the salmon farm around seven hours from Puerto Aysén, at the southern tip of Chile.
On Monday, authorities after analysis determined that it was a sei whale. It had become almost entirely entangled with ropes of different length. Furthermore, a metal chain was found wrapped around the whale.
Sernapesca then instructed the owner of the salmon farm to dispose of the remains of the cetacean in a secured sector of the coast.
“Once collected, all the information will be made available to the agencies and institutions that require it, as well as to international conservation bodies such as the International Whaling Commission (Response Network to Gillnetting of large cetaceans) and other forums of which Chile is a part of,” wrote Sernapesca.
Sei Whales are one of the fastest of all cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), able to reach speeds of up to 50 mph for short sprints.
“There are about 80,000 sei Whales in the world today. That is about 1/3 of the population that existed in the world before the whaling boom of the late 1800s through early 1900s,” according to Oceanwide Expeditions.
