A dead whale being discovered after washing up on shore is nothing new. However, when that whale is a species that scientists have never seen before, things can get interesting pretty quick.
A biology teacher made the discovery after stumbling upon the whale carcass on the shore along the Pribilof Islands, in St. George, located in Alaska’s Bering Sea. He informed a former fur seal researcher of the discovery and she thought it was a Baird’s beaked whale. The large, gray whales often wash up dead on the shore.
Upon further inspection it turned out several characteristics didn’t match up for it to be a Baird’s beaked whale. The animal had worn teeth, suggesting it was old, yet it was far too short (24 feet) to be an adult. That, along with a dorsal fin that was too large and a darker pigmentation of its skin, pointed to it being something else entirely.
The whale actually fits the description of an old Japanese legend of karasu or “raven.” The supposed legendary creature is said to be an incredibly rare species of beaked whale.
A study published on the findings of the whale notes that there are only eight other documented samples of the karasu species.
“The challenge in documenting the species was simply locating enough specimens to provide convincing evidence,” says lead author of the study, Phillip Morin. “Clearly this species is very rare, and reminds us how much we have to learn about the ocean and even some of its largest inhabitants.”
Scientists involved in the study hope to discover more of these rare beaked whales in the future. They have yet to find a live specimen, but they believe they’ll have their chance to study one in the future.
“It’s just so exciting to think that in 2016 we’re still discovering things in our world—even mammals that are more than 20 feet long,” he said. “We don’t know how many there are, where they’re typically found, anything. But we’re going to start looking.”
