9-Foot Pygmy Sperm Whale Washes Ashore Cayman Islands

A rare pygmy sperm whale, which washed ashore the Cayman Islands Thursday, has died. The cause of death is yet to be ascertained.

Local residents noticed the whale being stranded on Beach Bay in Grand Cayman and alerted officials at the Department of Environment. The whale was apparently alive when the residents spotted it, but died by the time department staff arrived at the beach. 

The whale had lost its skin from lying on the rocks and was bleeding from its wounds. Officials were not able to determine the reason as to how the whale got stranded on the beach. They collected samples from the whale, and will be performing necropsy to ascertain the cause of its death, reports cayCompass.com. 

"It measured 2.75 meters [9 feet] in length and probably weighed around 650 pounds... There were no obvious signs as to why it stranded and died but perhaps the necropsy will tell us more," Tim Austin, deputy director at the department of environment, told cayCompass.com.

Pygmy sperm whales are small members of the toothed whale group. The marine mammal is one of the two species of whale that belongs to the family of Kogiidae. The other whale species is the dwarf sperm whale. Both species appear very similar, except for some dissimilarity in their physical size, morphology and other minor features.

Pygmy sperm whales are elusive marine mammals that are found in deep waters throughout the ocean, except the Arctic. They often appear quietly and slowly at the surface, and lie motionless with the back of their head above water. This could explain why these whales are rarely seen.

The whales face some threats due to human activities. They are incidentally taken as bycatch in fishing gear, including driftnets and gillnets. They are occasionally subject to ship strikes because of their behavior of logging motionless on the sea surface.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species considers the pygmy sperm whales as "Lower Risk Least Concern". The species is also protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.