No Request To Be Preserved At Museum, Sperm Whale Carcass In Osaka Bay Finally Drowns

Illustration - A stranded sperm whale that died. (ANTARA PHOTO/Budi Candra Setya/foc)

JAKARTA - A sperm whale that died after being found dying near the mouth of the Yodo River in Osaka last week, has finally sunk to the seabed on the Kii Peninsula in the south of Osaka Bay.

The male whale, about 15 meters long, was hauled by boat and tied to a 30-ton concrete block to drown.

The whale is affectionately referred to on social media as "Yodo-chan".

According to the Osaka City port bureau, the ship carrying the carcass was pulled up by a tugboat in the early hours of Thursday from a wharf near the mouth of the Yodo River.

The ship housing the whale was brought south between Wakayama and Tokushima prefectures, and the carcass of the marine mammal sank into the water just after 3 pm local time.

The 38-ton whale was first seen on January 9 after it became stranded at the mouth of the river, as quoted from Antara, launching Kyodo-OANA, Friday, January 20.

Yodo-chan became weaker and weaker, and experts confirmed on Friday (13/1) that the whale was dead.

Photo by Todd Cravens on Unsplash

Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui said initially there was talk of temporarily burying the whale carcass on land to turn it into a skeletal specimen for display in a museum.

However, the plan failed to be carried out because neither party requested the animal's skeleton.

According to the coast guard, whales are rarely seen in Osaka Bay.

The bay is mostly covered by Awaji Island, leaving only two narrow passages to the north and south, which eventually lead to the Pacific Ocean.