On November 9th 2015 a whale was found on a ship in the port of Ghent. Marine mammal specialist Jan Haelters of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences is responsible for the further scientific research of the whale.

On Monday November 9th the ship Premium do Brasil came from Brazil carrying orange juice and arrived in the port of Ghent. The ship also had another special cargo on board… On the stern of the ship there was a fresh common fin whale! Presumably the whale had been hit by the ship one or two days before, somewhere between the Bay of Biscay and the western part of the Channel. Further analysis may reveal whether the animal died by the collision, or whether it was already dead and then dragged along.

The whale is 10,50 meters long and weighs 10 ton. It is a young male (one year old). Marine mammal specialist Jan Haelters of the RBINS went on board of the ship to take further action. The whale has been removed from the water and placed on the quay, so an autopsy can be carried out by the University of Liège, in collaboration with RBINS and the University of Ghent.
Last Saturday a five-meter-long whale had been found on a ship that came from England and docked in Rotterdam.