On May 4, Mr. Le Van Toan - Head of Vinh Hoi village (Cat Tien commune, Gia Lai province) - said that local people are bringing the body of a large sea creature ashore for burial according to fishermen's customs.
This creature is about 4m long, weighs more than 2 tons, and was found stranded in a state of weak vitality, with many wounds on its back and eyes at 2 pm on May 3.
Although dozens of people tried to bring this creature back to the sea, by noon on May 4, this individual had died, drifting a few hundred meters from the coast of Vinh Hoi village.
Regarding the marine creature just discovered by the people of Vinh Hoi village, expert Vu Long - of the Center for Conservation of Biodiversity and Endangered Species (CBES) - said that this is the Cuvier whale, scientific name Ziphius cavirostris, a whale species with live teeth mainly in deep seas offshore.
According to expert Vu Long, this fish species has the ability to dive very deep, can go down to thousands of meters and stay underwater for a long time to hunt squid, deep-sea fish and some crustaceans.
This is one of the deepest submerged marine animals in the world, rarely observed directly in nature. Therefore, many records of this species in the world come from stranded cases.
Also according to experts, the appearance and stranding of the Cuvier carp whale in Gia Lai sea area is an important record, which needs to be fully scientifically recorded to better understand the diversity of marine animals in Vietnam.
