Like a funeral procession, in the night, on a mirror of black sea. The whale that died last Thursday in the waters of the port of Sorrento crossed the gulf, transported by a convoy of boats, the CP267 and CP532 patrol boats of the coast guard, arriving this morning in Naples.
The challenge, which was not an easy one, which began during the night, involved vehicles and men from the port authorities of Castellammare and Naples, coordinated by the Maritime Direction. The arrival, at the San Vincenzo pier, then at the Megaride shipyards. An autopsy will be carried out on the animal, and then proceed to the museum, as also requested by the Punta Campanella Marine Park, which has followed the stages of recovery step by step.
The tests will provide further clarification on the death of the animal, almost certainly due to a virus, and on the same dimensions. The length of 23.50 meters, waiting for the last confirmation, would make it the largest whale seen in recent years in the whole Mediterranean.
The body will be subjected to the first assessments by the team led by Sandro Mazzariol, professor at the University of Padua and head of the intervention unit of the "Cetaceans strandings Emergency Response Team" (Cert). The team deals with the management of large cetacean strandings in Italy and abroad.The recovery from the sea will also involve divers and the personnel of the Operational Department of the Coast Guard General Command, which has sent its own Laboratory to the s
Like a funeral procession, in the night, on a mirror of black sea. The whale that died last Thursday in the waters of the port of Sorrento crossed the gulf, transported by a convoy of boats, the CP267 and CP532 patrol boats of the coast guard, arriving this morning in Naples.
The challenge, which was not an easy one, which began during the night, involved vehicles and men from the port authorities of Castellammare and Naples, coordinated by the Maritime Direction. The arrival, at the San Vincenzo pier, then at the Megaride shipyards. An autopsy will be carried out on the animal, and then proceed to the museum, as also requested by the Punta Campanella Marine Park, which has followed the stages of recovery step by step.
The tests will provide further clarification on the death of the animal, almost certainly due to a virus, and on the same dimensions. The length of 23.50 meters, waiting for the last confirmation, would make it the largest whale seen in recent years in the whole Mediterranean.
The body will be subjected to the first assessments by the team led by Sandro Mazzariol, professor at the University of Padua and head of the intervention unit of the "Cetaceans strandings Emergency Response Team" (Cert). The team deals with the management of large cetacean strandings in Italy and abroad.The recovery from the sea will also involve divers and the personnel of the Operational Department of the Coast Guard General Command, which has sent its own Laboratory to the site. mobile environmental.
“They were very complicated days - comments Lucio Cacace, president of the Marine Protected Area of Punta Campanella - The death of the whale affected the whole community. The weight and size of the specimen created many logistical and organizational problems. But we insisted and wanted at all costs that the necropsy be performed. I thank the Port Authority and all the men of the Coast Guard involved in the difficult transfer to Naples ”.
Post mortem evaluations will be carried out in collaboration with scholars from the Natural History Museum of Milan and the Tethys Research Institute. “In our seas - specify from Tethys - two populations coexist, one properly Mediterranean, and one of fin whales periodically coming from the Atlantic which generally do not go beyond the Balearic Islands. Genetic analyzes will confirm the origin of the unfortunate animal ".