Fluker is a humpback whale known to Mediterranean scientists, who have encountered it more than once in the Pelagos marine sanctuary, a protected area between Italy, France and Monaco.
Its great feature is its amputated tail fin, part of which it lost after colliding with a fishing boat and the rest in August last year, according to speculation, when entangled in a used net.
“We met him in 2006 and we saw him twice that year. It has a very unique history since many animals have scars from their encounter with humans, but a fin whale amputated in this way is very rare ”said Denis Ody, head of the WWF cetacean program in France, according to the portal RFI.
“At that time we thought he was going to die in a few weeks. But by surprise we saw him again in 2020 ”, he added.
A few weeks ago Fluker was spotted again, and his current state shocked everyone. Marine photographer Alexis Rosenfeld encountered the dying blue fin whale.
“He was very thin and covered with parasites that took advantage of his weakness”, He affirmed, adding that “he swims with difficulty and breathed only once per minute.”
“Flucker is the ambassador of the Mediterranean whales and the treatment they are given”, sentenced the photographer.
According to Ody, Fluker “survives on his own reserves since he cannot feed”, reason why there are no hopes that it will have a favorable end.
But Fluker is not the only case that exists, since there are dozens of blue whales – the second largest animal in the world – that suffer fatal injuries from collisions with fishing boats or from becoming entangled with the meshes they leave.
Only in Pelagos, where Fluker usually appears, 10 to 40 whales die in accidents related to boats.
For this same reason, the WWF is concerned and recommends limiting the speed of boats in the area to about 20 kilometers per hour, that anti-collision systems be used to detect the presence of animals and launch a campaign to collect used nets and use others that are biodegradable.
But this is not so easy since the support of the governments of Italy and France is needed. “The Pelagos sanctuary is an area with many maritime flows. This traffic increases every year by 4% and this will make coexistence with animals impossible, ”said Ody. “The Pelago sanctuary must be recognized as a vulnerable maritime area”, Hill.
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