Oct 24, 2023 at 7:03 PM Update: 33 minutes ago
A young humpback whale swims in the Wadden Sea. The whale is estimated to be 5 to 7 meters long, SOS Dolfijn told NU.nl.
The humpback whale was spotted for the first time on Monday, but it may have been swimming there for a while. “It is of course looking for a needle in a haystack,” says a spokesperson for SOS Dolfijn.
“We don’t know if he is healthy,” she says. “We are still waiting for good images with which we can assess whether the animal is healthy.”
SOS Dolphin tries to identify the humpback whale. That is not easy, because for that they need images of the underside of the whale’s tail blade. “That is, as it were, the fingerprint of the humpback whale,” the spokesperson explains. “We can use this to see whether the animal has been spotted somewhere else before.”
Humpback whales can become regular visitors or residents of the Wadden Sea
The humpback whale was monitored by fishing boats on Monday, but in general the animal is left alone as much as possible. “We don’t want any stress for the whale.”
Previously it was thought that it was a sperm whale. SOS Dolfijn is happy that it is a humpback whale, because sperm whales cannot navigate in the Wadden Sea. “Humpback whales are very adventurous and remain very calm. They eat their fill and then leave again.”
SOS Dolfijn is not surprised. “We see a humpback whale in the Wadden Sea every year between March and October. Sometimes they stay for a few days and sometimes for a number of months. They may become regular visitors or even permanent residents,” said the spokesperson.
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Image: Vincent Kikstra
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2023-10-24 17:03:27
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