Officers Use Heavy Equipment To Bury Whale Sharks In Lumajang

Joint officers buried the carcass of a leopard whale shark using heavy equipment on the coast of Selok Anyar Village, Pasiran District, Lumajang Regency, Tuesday (4/7/2023). (ANTARA/HO-BPBD Lumajang)

LUMAJANG - Joint officers used heavy equipment to bury the carcass of the Tutul Whale Shark stranded on the south coast of Selok Anyar Village, Lumajang Regency, East Java.

"Today, joint officers from the TRC BPBD, TNI, Polri, Fisheries Service, sub-district staff, to village officials were deployed to evacuate and bury the carcasses of the Tutul Whale Shark," said Lumajang BPBD Pusdalops Officer Dwi Nurcahyo as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, July 4.

According to him, a team of the BPBD Rapid Response Team (TRC) arrived at the location where the Tutul Whale Shark was stranded and carried out an initial mapping on the south coast of Selok Anyar Village, Pasirian District, to determine which location to bury it.

"The whale shark carcass was buried approximately 50 meters from where it was stranded and a 2.5 meter deep dredging was carried out using heavy equipment because it weighed almost 1 ton," he said.

The animal burial activity, which has the Latin name Rhincodon Typus, is running smoothly and conducive, although it is drizzling in the southern coastal area of Selok Anyar Village.

Meanwhile, the Village Guidance Officer (Babinsa) of Selok Anyar Village, Serda Firdaus, said that the 3.5-meter-long Tutul Whale Shark was found stranded dead and several parts of its body were damaged on Monday, July 3, 2023 at around 15.00 WIB.

"The carcass of the Tutul Whale Shark was first discovered by a resident named Pak Topan while fishing on the beach, a shark carried by sea waves until it pulled over to the shoreline," he said.

When found, he continued, the whale shark was dead with several parts of the body injured or damaged, such as the upper fin, left fin, and tail. While the right fin is still intact.