May 15, 2014

SOUTH AFRICA–Children shrieked in disgust as removal men tore the tail off a whale carcass in a botched attempt to take it from the beach where it had washed up.

It took 20 helpers and two industrial diggers to haul the 20-tonne southern right whale on to a flatbed truck, before being driven to a landfill site.

The clean-up job was captured by British photographer Dan Beecham, 30, at Sunset Beach outside Cape Town, South Africa, against a backdrop of the city’s distinctive Table Mountain…After three hours the 10m-long whale was eventually lifted on to the flatbed and driven away to be disposed of.

Mr Beecham, from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, believes fishermen or an accident may have killed the animal.

He added: ‘Someone who saw it when it first washed up said it had a lot of line on it, perhaps from nets, so it could have been an entanglement or a combination of entanglement and a ship strike.’

According to folklore, the explanation for the right whale’s name is that they were the ‘right’ ones to hunt, because they float when killed and often swim within sight of the shore.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2629241/20-tonne-whale-carcass-beached-near-Cape-Town-tail-ripped-botched-attempt-lift-truck-carry-away.html#ixzz31ooa4lMz
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