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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Whale shark beached up on Iokea

Villagers from Iokea in the Gulf province were surprised to find a whale shark beached up on their shores last Sunday morning.

Thomas Auhava, curator of the Schwimmer War Museum outside Port Moresby, was at his Iokea village at the weekend and took pictures of the beached whale shark.

Pictures taken by Mr Auhava show a whale shark with white spots on its back.

“It’s about 6.5m long and 2m wide,” he said.

“It couldn’t get out because of shallow water.

“It’s still alive.

“It was just waiting for the tide to push it out.”

Iokea villagers took a ride on the back of the beached whale last Sunday.

 

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:51 PM

    I read the article - was it in The National or the Post-Courier? I can't remember which.

    Fascinating at the least. Do you know what has happened so far?

    It reminded me of a baby whale which lost its mother, and ended up swimming around an anchored yacht - thinking that the yacht was its mother. All the while slowly starving...

    Kabot,

    Tavurvur

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Tavurvur,

    Yes, I wrote that story in The National a couple of days ago.

    I'll try to follow up on what happen later.

    malum

    ReplyDelete