The body of a nine metre humpback whale was found at dawn today on the beach at Cabanas near Tavira. The whale was a young one as adults range in length from 12–16 metres.
The 2.5 tonnes mammal had badly cut fins and the assumption is that the whale had been entangled in fishing nets and was cut free with a knife.
The local maritime police logged the event and the bold commander Ventura Borges said that to find this kind of whale is "relatively rare" with only five cases of humpback whales ever having been recorded along the Algarve coast, to his knowledge.
The whale (megaptera novaeangliae) had been dead for at least two days, judging by the body's decomposition, and the Maritime Police ordered that it be buried.
