A dead Fin Whale calf washed onto Nitzanim shore near Ashdod following suspected tar spill that polluted the nearby shores, the Nature and Parks Authority reported on Thursday.
The calf was 10 meters long. Full-size adults can get to roughly 20 meters long in the Mediterranean Sea and 24 meters long throughout the rest of the ocean, making the Fin Whale the second largest whale on the planet after the Blue Whale.
The calf's spotting came a couple of weeks after beach-goers in Hertzliya and Tel Aviv reported spotting a whale nearby with no photographic evidence.
The event came after a reported tar spill from an unknown source out at sea, which Nature and Parks Authority head Shaul Goldstein suggested was related to the appearance of the beached whale.
The calf's spotting came a couple of weeks after beach-goers in Hertzliya and Tel Aviv reported spotting a whale nearby with no photographic evidence.
The event came after a reported tar spill from an unknown source out at sea, which Nature and Parks Authority head Shaul Goldstein suggested was related to the appearance of the beached whale.
Goldstein said that the tar pollution is a “large scale and very severe one which inflicts a lot of damage” and called on the Environmental Protection Ministry to find those responsible and punish them to the “fullest extent of the law.”
Chunks of tar had washed ashore all along Israel’s coast on Wednesday and Thursday following intense storms.
Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said that the tar is “of an unknown source” and that her ministry is investigating concerning its origin. She also instructed local councils to follow the emergency protocol set up for such cases to get cleaning crews on the ground to clean.
The ministry is treating the event as an inter-local pollution incident for now.
Experts reason the pollution is due to an oil spill from a shipping vessel which passed along the coast.