The ocean is big and dark and full of nonsense. While we might enjoy swimming in it, innately we understand that we should not trust the ocean. We hate swimming when we can’t see the bottom, we react with terror when something touches our legs, we are morbidly fascinated when anything weird emerges out of it. The ocean is simply too big for us to understand or fully explore and, as such, it is awash with secrets and mysteries and bafflements. Take, for instance, this whale carcass found in the Amazon.
According to NGO Bicho D’água, this roughly 8-metre long carcass belonging to a humpback whale calf was found 15 metres from the shore of the Brazilian island of Marajó, one of the large islands that sits in the delta at the mouth of the Amazon River.
Bicho D’agua said that they had sent biologists to the scene to attempt to determine how the whale died, believing that it might have passed away before it ended up in the mangroves. In an Instagram post, the organisation said that it was most likely that the carcass had washed up so far on land as a result of the large tides in the area.
Brazilian newspaper The Times said that it was uncharacteristic for whales to be in the area in the Amazonian winter, as flooding of the river pushes fresh water further up the mouth of the Amazon, deterring saltwater animals. They are more likely to be seen when drought in the Amazon allows saltwater to push further upstream.
