Dead whale cadaver is missing | Bruges

Several shipping services such as the Belgica and the rescue services of the Maritime Rescue and Coordination Center (MRCC) are currently in the North Sea looking for the cadaver of a fin whale. The animal was spotted yesterday off the coast of Nieuwpoort and drifted in the direction of Zeebrugge. This morning, however, the cadaver could no longer be located. There are several scenarios as to where the fin whale may be. “The cadaver may have drifted faster than the models predicted. The animal was already very bloated, so it had less resistance than expected. It is therefore possible that it has already passed Zeebrugge. That is why we are already looking further. Another possibility is that the cadaver has sunk. If there is a crack or the gas can escape, it can sink. If that’s the case, we won’t be able to find it anytime soon, but that’s all hypothetical,” explains Kelle Moreau of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS).

The cadaver is searched for with many means. “The animal can pose a danger to shipping because of its size. We also want to be able to check where the cadaver washes up. We also did that in 2018. Then the cadaver was towed to De Haan because we could easily get to the location with bulldozers. If the animal washes ashore at, say, the Zeebrugge harbor dam, we cannot easily reach it and the salvage would be a difficult job.” Storage is required by law, but can also be useful for scientific research.