Dear friends,
Arillas beach has been for one more time the centre of interest as a rare kind of a whale species has been stranded at Arillas beach three days ago at midday.
When we first noticed it's appearance just outside the Graziella Taverna.
It was still alive but it would not swim back to the sea but it was remaining in shallow water without moving.
Immediately people from Arillas went in to the water and pushed it back to the deeper water. It swam for several meters towards the north and everyone felt so happy that we managed to help it survive.
Until that time everyone thought it was a dolphin that for some reason had lost its orientation. Unfortunately the mammal was found again in the evening at the north far end of the beach stranded again in shallow water.
Again people went there (including my self this time) we jumped in the sea and we managed to push it back to the deeper water. Although our attempts, it did not want ot go away.... it turned back and left it's body still in the shallow water like it was found earlier in the day.... what ever it was happening, the animal had decided to die on our beach..... The following morning it was dead I noticed that this mammal was at least 4m long and the dorsal fin was placed further back near to it's tail.
So I did a research on internet durring the night which concluded that this mamal is a Ziphius cavirostris ( Ζιφιός) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuvier%27s_beaked_whale), the local port police was informed about the incident.
(http://arillas.com/zifios2.jpg) A couple of officers were sent to take a look. after the mammal was dead, a number of scientists came to take samples of the dead body for further investigation . We even had to move it from the end of the beach next to the pear and we were told to keep it in the water until a scientific team from Spain would arrive to observe and take samples of it too.
Many people came to see the strange animal that looks like a dolphin but it's much bigger and never aproaches any human presence. (that;s why you would have seen a lot of action on the pier durrign the last two days) (http://arillas.com/web_cam0003.jpg)
I have been reading in the greek press that it's a popular kind of whale that lives in the area of the deap open seas of North West Corfu untill Crete and Rhodes. It;s a very shy animal and , therefore it has not been yet possible to be observed much in it's own nature. Most of the reports are from dead stranded individuals. According to the Scients, it is the only mammal that can dive further than 1000 metres as propably utill 3000 it eats mainly squids, it's a great hunter of giant squids as some kind of large squid has only been seen and observed in it's Stomach.
I spoke to an older Fisherman who told me that he has never came across to a "fish" like that so close. He has seen big individuals but only from distance as they always cept away from his boat.
I have proposed the local council to berry the dead mammal in a special way so the in the future we can collect the bones for public view.
Unfortunately we have no picture of it while it was still alive, our exitment and urge to save it was more important.
(http://arillas.com/zifios.jpg)
All though we are all sad about the poor animal we feel very priveleded that we were able to swimm next to it durring it's last hours we I'm sure it must have been suffering and we hope the analyssises that have been taken from the Scientists will be usefull for the Conservation of it's species.
(http://arillas.com/zifios3.jpg)
(http://arillas.com/zifios4.jpg)
What an inspiring read. Thanks Boss for sharing such a wonderful report of such an exciting (and at the same time tragic) event in our "quiet" corner of Corfu. I never cease to be amazed at what happens in Arillas, but this has topped them all.
Your forum members will be enthralled like me. Thank you for taking so much time to share it with us all.
Phil
Thank you, Dimitri, for including us in this unique experience. Food for thought...
Emeralddragons
This is absolutely amazing....I so wish I had been there to helpget it back in deeper water.
Thank you Dimitri for sharing the story and the pictures....it was clearly another Arilliac.
Thank you Dimitris for sharing the story and photos.
Connie x
WOW! What an amazing thing to happen.
Thank you for sharing Dimitris!
Thanks for sharing this with us. An amazing tale of how this whale `deciding` to end its life on Arillas beach.
I hope more can be found out about the mammal after test results.
I also hope it didn`t suffer too much.
Paul
Dimitris thank you for sharing your experience think I will have to look on google.
Jill x
The first thing I do every morning is look at the web cam and before I read this thread I thought to myself that looks like a small whale on the beach - and then I read this, amazing!!
An exciting, once in a life time, yet tragic experinece for all those that tried to get the poor mammal back to the ocean...
Ang
Thank you Dimitris that was very interesting to read :)
What a lovely, but sad, experience - thank you very much, Dimitri, for telling us about this.
The whale was obviously like us all - he visited Arillas once and did not want to leave.........
Janis x
I was watching the web cam on Friday, and even posted about how many people there were on the jetty.
How sad that this is why they were there, but I feel that although it was such a sad thing to happen at least on Arillas beach people tried to help it back into deeper water.
Not a lot is known about this type of whale so maybe everyone who helped can feel very proud that they may have contributed to more insight to its habits.
Thank you Dimitiris for sharing with us this very rare happening, and for posting the very interesting photographs, and thanks to all who tried to help.
Val x and Bill x
Well that answers my question in an earlier post ,thanks Dimitri for the story it's a pity really the poor creature didn't swim off after your earlier attempts to save it but i guess nature will always take its course .
Tony
Thanks so much for the info Dimitris - so sad - we often have a similar thing on Cleethorpes beach - they seem to know they are dying and need to come ashore to do it. If I were a whale I would choose Arillas over Cleethorpes any day.
Just love Janis's comment:
"The whale was obviously like us all - he visited Arillas once and did not want to leave........."
Such a sad story
Thanks for sharing such an amazing story Dimitris. Poor thing, wonder what had happened to it before it found the beach at Arillas, am sure it didnt beach itself there because it thought, this looks a nice place.
Sharon x
obviously a very intelligent and discerning whale, very sad, but it certainly new the place to be in its final hours.
A valiant attempt to save an amazing creature.
Looks like this wasn't the only one
http://duritos.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/new-atypical-mass-stranding-of-cuviers-beaked-whales/
My goodness, that is very interesting, I do hope the stranding of these beautiful creatures was nothing to do with the research.
Val x
Great effort to save the whale but it ended as most attempts at saving these beached creatures do. Very sad
Truth: I agree with your point of view.
It's sad, but natural for animals to seek solitude to pass away-
One of my cats, Silke, nearly passed away twice, and each time she was
hiding from me and the other cat. I took her to the vet for treatment.
She was suffering from bronkitis and the vet said she wouldn't live long.
That was more than two years ago.
But Silke is a tough little one and she survived:
they are both 13 years old now and thankfully they are both very well.
Connie x
Glad to hear it Sunflower ! We have a 14 year old black laborador thats survived more than she should have and still keeps going !
Don't get me wrong:
I really, really admire everyone who tried to save the whale.
Rescues do happen very succesfully sometimes-
But nature has it's own ways and maybe it was for the best
if the poor animal was lost or suffering from serious illness.
Connie x
Although we have been in love with Arillas for many years and been avid for many years, we have never felt the urge to join the conversations. However having read this post we feel that it deserves a response.
It's a wonderful story, albeit with a sad ending, but demonstrates the spirit and ethos of the local community which draws us back year after year. Thank you Dimitri for educating us yet again.
Carol & Nigel
Wonderful posting thanks Dimitir.Its just so sad that the animal died,but i suppose it was very weak and its time had come