Dead sperm whale washes up on Moreton Island, attracts sharks (Australia)

Dead sperm whale beached on Moreton Island. Pic: Ina Ansmann/Tangalooma Island Resort

May 30^th, 2014 (Tom Snowdon). AN 11m sperm whale carcass has washed up on Moreton Island.

The deceased mammal was discovered just before noon today on the eastern beaches of the national park.

Experts believed it had been dead for about 24 hours before it washed ashore.

Tangalooma Resort marine biologist Ina Ansmann said there were no external injuries on the animal to indicate a cause of death.

“Tissue samples have been taken to do some necropsy analysis to find out if there’s an obvious cause of death,” she said.

“It’s quite rare to see sperm whales around here, so it’s quite exciting.”

Ms Ansmann said the carcass was in a “pretty good” condition and was unlikely to pose a biohazard to visitors at the moment.

“It’s pretty quiet over here at the moment, so the marine park employees will probably just leave it for a while to let the tide wash it out.

“If that doesn’t work, they might have to look at burying it.”

The carcass has reportedly attracted opportunistic sharks to the area, which is already known to be heavily populated by bull sharks and whaler sharks.

The sex of the whale is unclear at the moment, but experts believe it is more likely to be a female.

“The females tend to stay in the more tropical areas and the males have north-to-south migration, but much further off the coastline,” Ms Ansmann said.

“And they are known to grow up to about 11m, while the males have been known to get larger than 16m.

“Based on that, we believe it’s either an adult female or juvenile male.

“But we haven’t seen its genitalia.”

Ms Ansmann said sperm whales were traditionally more of a deepwater animal, with the ability to dive down to depths of 2000m.

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