An injured sperm whale who stranded on a beach in Portugal died Friday night. The whale washed up on the shore of Fonte da Telha beach in Almada on Friday morning, authorities said.
Attempts to guide the 10-meter long whale to deeper waters were unsuccessful. “At this point very little [chance of survival]. We have to wait until he dies. There is no other way,” Marina Sequeira, a biologist at Portugal’s Nature Conservation Institute and Forestry (ICNF), said Friday afternoon.
Sequeira said that the whale was probably hit by a large vessel and that when that happens, the chance of survival is very small. The animal had fractures and injuries on his body.
The whale died at 9:30 pm, and the body would be removed, the captain of the Port of Lisbon told Lusa news agency.
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