SINGAPORE — The 6.3m-long carcass of a baleen whale was found in the waters off Tanjong Pagar on Sept 6.
Announcing the discovery in a statement, the NUS Lee Kong Chian National History Museum said the cause of the whale’s death is unclear.
The carcass was in an advanced stage of decomposition, and research is underway to find out more about the animal, said the museum’s curator of mammals Marcus Chua.
Officers from the National Parks Board (NParks) had alerted the museum researchers to the carcass.
However, while preparations were ongoing, the whale’s “delicate carcass” was reported on Sept 12 to have drifted towards the Marina Bay Cruise Centre.
To prevent it from being lost to the open sea, museum staff worked with Singapore Salvage Engineers to secure the remains.
It is now safely secured in a restricted area for processing and further study by a team led by Dr Chua.
“Whale encounters in Singapore waters are rare. Hence, each stranding provides unique opportunities to study these large marine mammals,” he said.
This marks a decade since the museum has encountered and studied a whale carcass found in Singapore waters.
Months after the museum opened in 2015, the carcass of a sperm whale washed up near Jurong Island. The specimen, later named Jubi Lee, became one of the most iconic features in the Museum’s gallery.
Head of the museum Darren Yeo said: “It is both moving and serendipitous that another whale carcass should arrive in our waters during our 10th anniversary year — exactly 10 years after the museum’s launch and the discovery of Jubi Lee — just as we have been reflecting on a decade of research, public engagement, and conservation.”
The museum is currently studying the carcass and has collected tissue samples for future genetic analysis.
It said more details on the dissection process and subsequent findings will be shared in due course.
The 2025 baleen whale find echoes an earlier chapter of Singapore’s natural history, the museum noted.
In 1907, the Raffles Museum at Stamford Road, now the National Museum of Singapore, displayed the skeleton of a 13.4m-long blue whale skeleton that had stranded near Malacca in 1892.
This specimen was a major attraction until it was formally gifted to the National Museum of Malaysia in 1974.
[[nid:720566]]
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
