23042011 dead spermwhale in vestfjord!
in the afternoon I received a phone call from a friend in Svolvaer that they have found a dead whale floating in the water around the islands of lille molla. we went out with their boat and I could take pictures and skin samples, it was clearly a male spermwhale, ca 12-14m long. spermwhales are extremely rare inside the Vestfjord and maybe he died outside the Lofoten Islands and floated into the Vestfjord afterwards. the whale has been dead for some time, his kin was already pink and eaten up in most parts. what has caused his dead is unknown, he was too young for a natural death (adult male spermwhales can reach 18m of length). often spermwhales collide with large ships, or he could have died of an infection or pollution. male spermwhales travel from the south (e.g. Azores) to northern Norway along the continental shelf to feed and return to the females and calves in the south after some time. I hope the DNA samples will tell us to which clan he belongs, and maybe the dorsal fin was not too destroyed for a match, but more to that asap.
here are the pictures, let me know if you need more info/material for research.