The carcass of an large marine animal that washed up on Phuket’s Naithon Beach this morning has locals talking and marine biology officials investigating.
Apichart Prateep, a member of the local administration organization, told the Kusoldharm Rescue Foundation that the carcass of this great unidentified marine animal was spotted by a local walking on Naithon Beach at 9am.
He noted that most of the beach was overtaken by a very strong rotting smell and he knew they had to remove the carcass quickly or it would affect the marine environment and tourism.
“The animal had probably been dead for weeks, it resembles some type of giant fish or whale judging from its head and body,” Apichart said.
Dr. Kongkiat Kittiwatthanawong, Chief of the Marine Endangered Species Unit at the Phuket Marine Biology Center, said that he got a call about the carcass and that officials from his office were going to the beach this morning to pick up the carcass and bring it back to their laboratory for further study.
“We will examine the carcass as soon as it gets to the lab so we can find out what type of animal it is and what caused its death.
“Samples taken from the autopsy will help us learn more about the creature, but from the picture it could be a whale shark or other type of fish,” said Dr. Kongkiat.
