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MUNICIPALITY OF PADADA

Philippines

                                                                            WHALE TALE
                                                                                                                                                - CZALDY

              A rare phenomenon occurred last Sunday November 3, 2002 along the shoreline between
              Palili and Balasinon. About early Sunday morning, a fisherman noticed something gigantic
              caught in his fish trap and it turned out to be a whale. News broke out like lightning and
              people began to come in numbers to see the hapless mammal. I arrived at the scene five
              hours after the discovery and relieved to find the creature alive but seemed to be weak
              and disoriented, he was 3m long and about 400kg. Having no rescue training on beached
              whales was a handicap. Made contact with the International Marine Alliance through  
              Jimmy Torres and had the whale acclimatize and brought him to deeper water thereafter 
              but always go back to the shallow part. As the tide went high in the evening, the Bantay 
              Dagat of Balasinon brought him again to deeper water and there was no trace of the 
              mighty creature as we combed the nearby coastal barangays the morning after.

              There's still no conclusive identity of the whale as of press time. Mr. Gabriel Lim and I
              identified it to be either a Dwarf Sperm Whale or a Pilot Whale. We would like to 
              encourage visitors on this site with expertise on marine mammals to help us identify.

              As of press time, an unconfirmed story of a sighting of a beached whale along the 
              coastline of Sta. Maria was reported but had released it to deeper water. The veracity of
              the account still has to be confirmed. We just keep our fingers crossed that this amazing
              mammal survives.

                  WHALE01     WHALE02     WHALE03    WHALE05     WHALE06   WHALEnME1    WHALEnME2  
 

General Information: CZALDY

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Last Modified:  08 NOV  2002