STRANDING OF A BLACK RIGHT WHALE AT KUM0111,
SOUTHWESTERN COAST OF IZU PENINSULAYASUO YAMAMOTOANDHISOKA HIRUTA
Shimoda Floating Aquarium, Shimoda, Shizuoka-ken

On 15 April 1977 a black right whale was stranded on the coast of Kumomi, southwestern coast of lzu peninsula (Fig. 1). We received the information of thisstranding at about 2000 hours of that day and went there in haste. After arriving
the town of Kumomi and while we were on the way to the beach where the whale
stranded we heard several moans of animal, which was sounded as if they wereemitted from bottom of a manhole.
After arriving the beach we saw the whale in the shallow water of the beachand still alive. The sound we heard on the way were the respiration sound whichwere produced while outgoing air passes through the blowholes. We are quite
familiar with respiration sounds of dolphins kept in our aquarium, but this soundwas quite different from these and very impressive.
The whale went agrounded on the shallow bottom of the beach, nosing thehead towards the beach and moving its tail flukes very gently (Fig. 2). On theprevious day it was announced by press that a whale came quite close to the beachof Numazu city (see Fig. 1). We thought this was the same whale and it moved
from there down to here along the coast and finally stranded. There is an evidence,
however, to think that the whale was pursued by several fishing boots on the way.

Fig. 1.
Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst.,

No. 30, 1978, 249-251

Location of Kumomi and Numazu (see text).

250

BLACK RIGHTWHALE

Fig.2. Theblackrightwhales
trandedatKumomi.
TABLE I
. BODYPROPORTIONOFTHEBLACKRIGHTも，
VHALESTRANDEDO N15APRI
L197
7ATKUMOMI,IZUPENINSULA
MeasurementsLengthin
cmtotal gth

I. Totallength2. Tipofs
nouttocenterofeye3. Tipofs
noutt
oblow
holes
4
. Tipofsnou
tt
oangleofgape
5. Tipofsnou
ttoanteriorinsertionofflipper
6. Tipofs
nouttoti
pof日ipper
7. Cent
目・ ofeyetocenterofear
8. Notchofflukestocente
rofa
nus
9. Notcho
fflu
ke
stoce
nterofu
mbi
licus
JO. F
li
pper,tiptoanter
iori
nser
tion
1
1. F
li
pper,ti
pt
opo
ster
iori
nser
ti
on
1
2. F
lipper,gr
eates
twidth1
3. Tailflu
kes,totalspr
ead
1
4. Tailf
lu
kes,ti
pt
onot
ch1
5. T
ai
lf
lu
kes,anter
iori
nser
tiont
onotch
1
6. T
ai
lf
luke
s,an
ter
iori
nser
ti
ont
ot
ip

1,
1
50270
2
2
5
2
7
72
97
410
60
290
480
204
1
7
5
1
1
8
415
21
0
24
0
105

J
O
O
2
3.
5
1
9.6
2
4.
025.
8
35.
7
5.
225.
2
41.
7
17.7
15.
2
10.336.
I
18.
320.
99.
1% ay：~~stT hewhalewasl
eftwhole thenightasi
twas,becaus
e therewasnomean
stomov
ethewhale.
O n the fol
lo wing day we heard that the whale died early in the morning.
Wefo
1 ost
eological s
pecimen. But this was notpossible beca
use peopl
e ofKumomi
had already decided other way oftreating. W e made som e observation ofthe
whaleandmeasuredbodyproportionswhichareshowninTabl
e1.

InFig. 3arrangementsofthebonnetand othercarosi
tiesareshown. TheseSci.Rψ.WhalesRes.Inst.
,No.30,1978.

YAMAMOTO AND HIRUTA

251

Fig. 3. Arrangement of bonnet and other carosities of the black right whale stranded
at Kumomi.

are very hard in structure and like mm1ature of ranges of mountains, each top
being pointing. Cyamids were infested heavily on these carosities. Further there
present bristles in the region of bonnet and other carosities as well as a number
was noted on the surface of mandibles.
This whale was a young male of 11.5 m in length and all black in color andno white patch was observed on ventral surface of the body.
This whale was dismembered on the third day and when we arrived there
the treating was already begun and went rather hurriedly. We only could makesome observations. The sex of the whale was ascertained by the presence of along and slender penis of 110 cm in length. Thickness of blubber was measured
at several points around anus and the average thickness of these was 20 cm. The
color of baleen plates was grayish black and they numbered 227 on one side. We
could not examine internal organs nor stomach contents.

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst.,
No. 30, 1978.