There’s a nasty photo series in today’s Huffpo (actually a link from life.com) that shows the butchering of a whale in Japan. Ew gross, yeah, ick… but what interests me is the whale itself. It appears to be the biggest dolphin I have ever seen in my life. In the second shot in the series of 15, it’s plain that the men in the photo would fit inside its mouth, since the long dolphinish snout appears to be at least 3 feet long!
I have never heard of a whale that looks like a gigantic dolphin. Any ideas?
i’m far from an expert, but it looks like it could a be a bottlenose whale. Or possibly a Baird’s beaked whale. The Baird’s whale is rare, but still hunted in small numbers by Japan, apparently.