Another beached whale has been spotted on Iceland’s shores, for the second time in less than a month.
Morgunblaðið reports that a baleen whale was found on the beach near Lambastaðir, in south Iceland, by a farmer who was tending his sheep. The matter was reported to police in Borgarfjörður.
Police arriving on the scene found a whale measuring 18 metres long that had been dead for at least a few hours. It is believed the whale likely washed to shore when caught in strong southwesterly currents near the coast.
This marks the second time in the last month that whales have inexplicably beached themselves in Iceland. Last September, ten pilots whales beached themselves near Rif, a fishing village in Snæfellsnes. Authorities believe those whales may still have been alive when locals began butchering them.
Whale beachings are not necessarily uncommon in Iceland, and they are dealt with in different ways. Sometimes ivory is poached, sometimes they might be put down as a mercy killing and other times, they might be rescued and sent back out to sea.
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