Month / February 2017

by mondaymorgue

Daily Decay (28th February 2017): Unidentified Rat (Rattus sp.) @ Tampines

by mondaymorgue

Garden Supple Skink (Lygosoma bowringii)
Pulau Ubin, 29th September 2016

This Garden Supple Skink had probably been run over by a passing vehicle.

by mondaymorgue
  1. Rare species: Residents crowd around a Whale Shark caught in a trawl in Selakau waters, Sambas regency, West Kalimantan, on Friday.
  2. Playground: Children sit on the back of a Whale Shark caught in a trawl in Selakau waters, Sambas regency, West Kalimantan, on Friday.

Indonesia: Whale shark dead after being caught up in trawl
By Severianus Endi, 26th February 2017;

A 6-meter Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) weighing more than 1 ton got caught in the trawl of a fisherman in Selakau waters, Sambas regency, West Kalimantan, on Friday. Residents later cut the protected animal up and distributed the pieces.

Officers from Selakau Police and the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) questioned the fisherman, identified as Gustian, over the incident. He said the animal had accidentally become caught up in a trawl he had put out in waters around 20 kilometers off the shore. When he had discovered the shark in the net, Gustian claimed, it had already been dead.

Gustian, who had been out fishing with his son that day, said they had been unable to release the Whale Shark from the trawl, so he decided to pull it to the pier.

Gustian said he was not aware that Whale Sharks were a protected species. He said he did not know who had ordered the local residents to cut the Shark into pieces and take them home.

Pictures of the Whale Shark went viral on social media, showing local residents, including children, crowded around the carcass of the animal on Selakau Beach.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia’s West Kalimantan program manager, Albert Tjiu, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday there had been no clear information on whether Selakau waters were the habitat of Whale Sharks. However, he said, a WWF researcher conducting a survey in the area had heard of a similar incident last year.

Source: Jakarta Post

by mondaymorgue

Daily Decay (26th February 2017): Channelled Apple Snail (Pomacea sp.) @ Pasir Ris

This Apple Snail shell was found along the shore, close to the mouth of a large canal. Since this is the shell of a freshwater snail in a coastal marine environment, it was most likely washed downstream, then deposited by the tide.

However, it’s also possible that misguided acts of release by people wanting to gain good karma by releasing captive animals into the wild may have resulted in this Apple Snail ending up on the shore; I’ve personally come upon dead and decaying Apple Snails along the shore at another site along the coast, obviously released by well-meaning people who did not realise that dumping freshwater animals into a marine environment was the worst possible thing they could do if they wanted to ‘save’ animals.

by mondaymorgue

Photo: Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) Facebook

Thailand: Corpse of wounded Bryde’s Whale found off Prachuap Khiri Khan
23rd February 2017;

The body of a Bruda Bryde’s Whale (Balaenoptera edeni) was found off the shore of Prachuap Khiri Khan province on Thursday.

Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park chief Rungroj Assawakuntharin and a Kui Buri Fisheries officer went for inspection after being alerted by fishermen that they had found the body of a large sea creature on a pile of rocks 2 kilometres off Sam Phraya beach.

The officials took photographs of the dead Whale, which was stuck in the rocks, before forwarding it to Sophon Thongdee, deputy director general of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR), who confirmed that it was a Bryde’s Whale.

The Whale, estimated to be four to five metres in length, has a wound in the middle section of its body. It is believed that the creature died three to five days ago before the waves carried its body to the rocks. DMCR will send officials on Friday to conduct an autopsy on the body to find the cause of death.

Source: The Nation

The taxonomy of the Bryde’s Whale is still far from settled; what we call the Bryde’s Whale has been split into two subspecies or even distinct species by some authorities: the true Bryde’s Whale, a larger species found in tropical and warm temperate waters worldwide (Balaenoptera brydei), and the Eden’s Whale, a smaller form that may be restricted to coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific (Balaenoptera edeni). Both species(?) have been recorded from tropical waters of Southeast Asia.