Sad End To A Gentle Giant
By Azlan Othman

Bandar Seri Begawan - The gentle giant of the ocean could not make it in the deep where it belonged, after all.

Instead the injured whale, which was escorted to the South China Sea last week, had reportedly beached itself again on a lonely island not far from Brunei's mainland.

A group of Bruneian windsurfers spotted the decomposing body of a whale yesterday on the small island popularly known as the 'Monkey Island' situated a few minutes by boat off the coast of Muara.

One of them, a journalist, told the Weekend that he was not sure whether it was the same whale that came ashore in Serasa last week.

Since the reports tallied with the measurements and the nature of the wounds received by the other marooned whale, the connection is pretty obvious that it may be the same whale, he said.

On Sunday, this 24-feet Bryde's whale had become stranded in the shallow waters near a fishing structure known as 'lintau' off Pelumpong Island at Muara.

After 17 hours, a concerned foreign diver along with several local fishermen escorted the mammal into the deep waters, hoping that it would be able to survive.

During its ordeal in the shallow waters, the whale sustained serious injuries, among them a broken tail fin incurred when it was trying to free itself from the fishing structure where it had got itself entrapped, according to the fishermen.

The chances of its survival were also in doubt at the time, they added.

Meanwhile an officer from the Natural History Museum said they had not received any information of a whale being washed ashore. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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