Two specimens of sperm whale were found dead on the south coast of the Cuban province of Guantanamo, in an area known as El Uvero, located near the border perimeter with the illegal naval base kept by the United States.
Preliminary information on the case indicates that specialists from the provincial delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment examined the bodies of both cetaceans that are the largest whales with teeth that exist and investigate the causes of their appearance.
The appearance of the sperm whales is investigated for being animals that congregate in small herds and live in all the world ´s deep oceans, from the equatorial line to the edge of the polar ice, habitat where they feed on fish, crustaceans, octopus and squid.
A similar act occurred in March 2009, when a young specimen about 13 meters long was found dead on the beach of Barigua, in the northeastern municipality of Baracoa. His body was incinerated and buried, in accordance with the sanitary provisions.
On the coasts of the easternmost province of Cuba there were previous findings of these cetaceans. In 1977 one of these giant mammals settled in Maisi, from which the skeleton exhibited at the Tomás Romay Natural Science Museum in Santiago de Cuba was extracted.
In front of the Baracoa waterfront, in March 2008, two cetaceans offered the inhabitants the unusual spectacle of their love games in warm waters and protected waters ideal for mating and reproduction.
These great whales have been protected since 1966 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits the purchase and sale of their meat.
Translation: Ilia Charon