On Monday, February 20, Guangzhou resident Ly Hong and his family stumbled across the remains of a juvenile finless porpoise on a beach on Shangchuan Island, in southern Guangdong.
The deceased cetacean was discovered on a relatively desolate stretch of coastline on the east side of the island, according to Ly, and appeared to have perished recently.
“The dolphin looked like a fresh death, as blood was leaking out of its right ear,” said Ly via WeChat. “It looked like the locals chucked it in a fire of some sort, but interestingly it was just beached and not in a fire pit, so very strange indeed.”
While the images Ly captured of the dead animal could easily give the impression it was set alight, staff at the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society (HKDCS) disagree, telling us that while the finless porpoise has gray colored skin while alive, they quickly become dark – in some cases black – when beached and deceased.
The Indo-Pacific finless porpoise is found across the coastal waters of Asia, from the Persian Gulf to Japan, and can grow to 1.8 meters in length. Ly estimated that the baby porpoise he discovered on Shangchuan Island was roughly 80 centimeters in length, consistent with the HKDCS’s suggested at-birth size of 70 centimeters and confirming the animal was indeed a juvenile.
In addition to the baby porpoise corpse, Ly also discovered the remains of a bird, which he guessed was a cormorant.
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[Images via Ly Hong, HKDCS]
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