Ilaje Residents Turn Butchers as Giant Whale Swims to River Bank in Ondo

Marine life is clearly not sacred to Nigerians as a whale had the terrible misfortune of finding itself stranded on the Enu-Ama beach, in Ilaje area of Ondo state, yesterday.

It was promptly butchered. Sadder still was that it was still alive and gasping for breath when the act occurred. Residents and people around descended on the hapless animal with machetes and sharp objects.

The huge fish has been identified as a sperm whale,  the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of genus Physeter, and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the other two; pygmy sperm and dwarf sperm of the genus Kogia.