Two Dead Bryde’s Whales Reported Off Cha-am and Bo Fai
Officials hauled one bloated Bryde’s whale ashore at Laem Phak Bia on Friday, and a fisher’s video shows a second, 13 to 14 metres long, drifting from Cha-am toward Bo Fai. Nobody has a cause of death yet.
Bo Fai is the beach neighbourhood about six kilometres north of Hua Hin railway station (our measurement from map coordinates), and on Friday it appeared in a whale story nobody wanted. Thai media report that a fisher from Cha-am posted a video of a dead Bryde’s whale floating off Cha-am beach. It was 13 to 14 metres long and thought to have been dead for several days. The reports add that the sea carried it south toward Bo Fai the previous day.
The same day, officials in Phetchaburi hauled a second dead Bryde’s whale out of the water about 30 kilometres north of Cha-am beach (our measurement from map coordinates). Neither death has an explanation yet, and the officials quoted say they cannot tell whether the two are connected.
Two carcasses, two reports
The first animal was found by photographers and tourists on a whale-watching trip, according to Thairath. They were roughly 10 nautical miles off Bang Tabun in Ban Laem district, about two hours out by boat. The group roped the carcass and towed it to the Hat Sai Met Raek viewpoint at Laem Phak Bia. At about 1pm on Friday, staff from the Marine and Coastal Resources Office 3 and the Upper Gulf research centre in Samut Sakhon used an excavator. They pulled the bloated male carcass onto the beach.
The second report rests on less. It comes from a local fisher’s Facebook video, relayed by Tnews and MGR Online, and none of the pieces we read says officials have seen or recovered this animal.
| Off Bang Tabun | Off Cha-am | |
|---|---|---|
| Reported length | About 9 m and 5 tonnes (Thairath, Tnews); 11 m (MGR Online) | 13 to 14 m |
| Sex | Male, age unknown | Not stated |
| Found by | Photographers and tourists on a whale-watching boat | A local fisher, posted on Facebook |
| Status on 6 November | Hauled ashore at Laem Phak Bia; necropsy planned | Reported drifting toward Bo Fai, Hua Hin; no official recovery reported |
The 9 metre and 11 metre figures for the first whale do not match, and the sources do not say which is a measurement and which an estimate. Treat the length as approximate until the department publishes its necropsy report.
Map: Hitkub. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Places are plotted at neighbourhood or district level from the reports; the carcasses’ exact positions were not published.
What the necropsy will look at
Officials told reporters they will examine the internal organs and any wounds and take samples to test for toxins. The aim is to separate natural disease from a change in the environment or a human cause such as marine debris or fishing gear, according to Tnews. Thairath adds that the officials cannot yet say whether the two deaths are linked or whether sea conditions have anything to do with them.
There is a recent precedent for what such an examination can find. On 30 and 31 August a Bryde’s whale carcass lay against the rock wall at Bang Pu in Samut Prakan. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources found a male sub-adult 10.7 metres long in good condition, with blubber 2.8 to 4 centimetres thick. Its upper jaw was broken, the head was bruised, and the department concluded it died of blunt trauma, shock and blood loss, Thai PBS reported. It was provisionally identified as “Mali”, a calf of a whale known as “Kanya”, first photographed in May 2021.
After that case, the environment minister told the department to work out measures against ship strikes. They include patrols along the whales’ shipping routes and talks with boat operators on speed limits, Muanchon Online News reported. None of Friday’s reports suggests a ship strike here. We mention it only because it shows how much a necropsy can establish, and how long the answers take.
For Hua Hin beaches
The reports do not say whether the Cha-am carcass has reached the shore at Bo Fai, and none of them carries beach advice for Hua Hin. That leaves the practical picture unconfirmed: if a carcass does come ashore, expect the department’s staff and heavy machinery to handle it, as they did at Laem Phak Bia. For now, there is nothing official to read about swimming conditions.
What the reports do show is how close the whale-watching season runs to the Hua Hin coast. Thairath describes this as the period when Bryde’s whales feed near the surface and draw photographers out of Bang Tabun. No date has been given for the necropsy results.
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