A image shows a 39-foot whale hanging limply over the bow of a Japanese tanker in the port of Mizushima, Japan.
Locals caught sight of the whale as the tanker pulled into the harbor in the western city of Kurashiki last month. The images were first published in Yomiuri Shimbun, which is one of Japan’s five national newspapers.
The Mizushima Coast Guard’s Office confirmed to Insider that the whale found was a male Bryde whale, weighing five tons.
“I’ve lived for more than 80 years, but it’s my first time [seeing a whale],” one bystander who saw the tanker said, according to the Daily Mail.
The ship’s crew were reportedly unaware they had been dragging the whale with them as they sailed through the Pacific, according to Yomiuri Shimbun.
Bryde whale marooned on the bow of a ship in Japan Mizushima Coast Guard Office
A spokesperson from the Mizushima Coast Guard Department said this was the first time they had witnessed anything like this. They would be investigating to see how such an incident can be prevented in the future.
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The name of the ship was obscured in the photos distributed by the Coast Guard.
A healthy Bryde whale swimming at the Mirs Bay in Shenzhen, China Photo by Shi Lei/Nanfang Daily/VCG via Getty Images
Michael Fishbach, executive director and co-founder of the Great Whale Conservancy, an environmental NGO based in North Carolina, told Insider that a dozen whales are killed by a ship for each one that is recorded.
Ship strikes are known to be one of the leading causes of non resistence for endangered and vulnerable whale populations, according to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
“Because of the negative buoyancy of the whales, they just sink straight to the bottom after they die, except on rare occasions like this one, where the whales are struck in the center of their body, and you have a situation as you see in the above image.”
Fishbach told Insider: “There’s no question that the number of whales killed by ships each year is in the 1000s each year.”
When discussing what needs to change to save these whales, Fishbach said a body designated by the industry that can approach the shipping companies with a “calm, combined effort” to put forward measures and changes “to put a stop to this.”
The whale specialist added that approximately 60% of the ships involved in whale strikes are container vessels.