42-footlong blue whale washed ashore at Revdanda coast in Maharashtra died

Revdanda coast of Alibaug: 42-foot-long blue whale died

Revdanda coast of Alibaug, Maharashtra was in news on 24 June 2015. The coast came in news after a 42-foot-long blue whale weighing 20 tonnes died after being washed ashore at the Revdanda coast, 17-km south of Alibaug.

This was the first time that such a big blue whale was spotted on the shores of Maharashtra.

The incident happened few days after two blue whales (mother-calf pair) and four Bryde’s whales were sighted near Kunkeshwar off the Sindhudurg coast in Maharashtra. They were sighted on the Maharashtra coast after almost a century by a group of researchers from the Konkan Cetacean Population Study (CPS) team between March and May 2015.

The previous sighting of the mammal off the Maharashtra coast was in 1914, records say.

Almost 20 types of whales are found in the Arabian Sea. There are two basic types of whales - toothed and baleen. Baleen whales have a specialised filter in their mouths that blocks out dirt and other sea trash while these mammals drink the water.

Blue whales and Humpback whales, which were washed ashore in and around Mumbai coast earlier, belong to the baleen whale category.

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