\n<\/p>\n
Detailed examinations of the carcass earlier revealed evidence suggesting the whale was struck by a vessel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Its tail appeared to have been severed by a powerful impact. Scientists also found broken bones and signs of haemorrhaging \u2013 injuries consistent with a ship strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Further analysis suggests the whale may have suffered two separate collisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An earlier impact to the head appears to have been survivable. However, the second strike is believed to have caused the fatal injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The findings highlight the risks faced by Omura’s whales, which inhabit warm waters across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The species is known to favour shallow coastal waters, placing it in close proximity to busy shipping routes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Little is known about the Omura\u2019s whale, a species only described in 2003.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The species remains listed as “data deficient” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, meaning there is insufficient information to accurately assess its risk of extinction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For scientists, every specimen therefore represents a valuable source of information.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor an animal that is so poorly known, every data point is important,\u201d said Dr Marcus Chua, who is leading the operation to preserve and study the whale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we salvaged the carcass, we can get tissue from it, DNA information, sequence the genome, and our findings would contribute to (better understanding) about Omura\u2019s whales.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Detailed examinations of the carcass earlier revealed evidence suggesting the whale was struck by a vessel.\u00a0 Its tail appeared to have been severed by a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--KYB251ad--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/08\/omura_baleen_whale_skull_lkcnhm.png?itok=eoNMBwNz","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24386,24388,24387,24385,4029,22,5611,6265,8126],"class_list":["post-59073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-carcass","tag-littleknown","tag-mysteries","tag-omuras","tag-scientists","tag-singapore","tag-species","tag-unlock","tag-whale","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}