The morning of Thursday, April 23, 2020, saw a whale wash up on the Atlantic shoreline at Mbisughu Community in Finima, Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria but by this Saturday morning it has been dismembered and carted away into various homes for consumption and sales.

The mammal later identified by Dr Bara Kabaka Brown, an environmental health expert, as a baby sperm whale was said to have washed up dead at the shore amidst concerns raised on the incidence of dead croaker fish around communities in the Niger Delta region.

The sperm whale or cachalot, was said to be about 32 feet in length, over 3,000 metric tonnes, according to Wikipedia, is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus Physeter and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia.

Strangely, without any consideration for the environmental implications, locals living in communities around the area, were said to have dismembered the whale for consumption. When Kristina Reports visited the area, only the dismembered and decomposing carcass of the whale was left.

In a chat with Kristina Reports, Dr Brown disagreed that the dead whale had a link with the dead croakers floating on the sea and washed up the shoreline, stressing that the whale “had died and had already started decomposing before it came. I would assume that maybe old age or it might have had an accident. But one thing that is obvious is that it came here dead and already decomposing”.

He admitted that the decomposing carcass of the whale, estimated to have died about a month ago, was a public health hazard, stating that harvesting and consuming the remains of the dead whale was a “very dangerous thing to do, which poses a very grave danger to the health of humans because it involves toxins, chemicals, and this is not just anything decomposing. This is a mammal that has decomposed here.”  

But against all entreaties, scavengers were seen harvesting the carcass of the dead whale and loading thme into sack bags to take home. When asked, some of them told Kristina Reports that there was nothing wrong or harmful about the meat and they would go cook and eat it.  

Kristina Reports spoke with a member of the Bonny Environmental Consultants Committee (BECC), Smart Halliday, who disclosed that BECC was working with the Finima Nature Park to evacuate the remains of the whale for conservation at the park but warned those harvesting the carcass to desist from it as it was inimical to their health.

A special team from the Forward Operating Base (FOB), Nigerian Navy (NN), Bonny comprising the Team Lead, Lt Jonah Gwana, and the Medical Officer, Sub. Lt. Joel Gana, among medical officials, and another team from the Finima Nature Park led by Shittu Usman Akorede, were also on ground at the location where the dead baby whale was found to gather information about the dead sperm whale.