People take their share of meat from Whale swept ashore
In what was termed ‘food from the gods’, it was a feast of some sort yesterday at a seaside Bayelsa community in Okpoma, Brass Local Government Area, as residents scrambled and butchered a giant fish suspected to be a whale that washed ashore on the beach area of the Atlantic Ocean.
It was gathered that the stranded fish was grounded on Tuesday night due to a low sea wave at the river bank.
Residents met the stranded whale on Wednesday morning and trooped out with machetes, hawk shaws, and axes to butcher the fish, which appeared dead. The whale measured about 15 meters long, five meters wide, and three meters high
Hundreds of youths in the area and neighboring communities of Twon-Brass, Odioma, Fish Town, and Sangana were seen with implements and different containers to butcher the sea mammal.
Some community chiefs and elders look on from the shore, expressing delight that it was food from the gods of the land who had seen their present suffering, especially with soaring prices of meat and other food items.
A former Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), who hails from. the community, Tarinyo Akono, said the whale may have died after it got stranded due to low waves.
He stated that the animal was grounded since in the night when people had gone to sleep, adding that if it were found alive, maybe it could have been rescued and sent back to the sea.
Also, the Youth President of the Okpoama community, Engr. Seiyefa Felix, who confirmed the incident, said people were at the waterside butchering the animal.
He said that the high tide of the river due to the rainy season might have brought the animal to the river bank before it died there.
Recalled that in August 2019, a similar giant whale got stranded at the waterside around the same vicinity and was also butchered by the residents for meat for about three days
Also speaking, Ebony Ipalmote, said an excavator was working around the place about 200 meters away but the boys guarding the place did not see the Whale there before they closed at about 10 pm on Tuesday, meaning that it was swept there by the wave between 12 and 3 am Wednesday.
He said “The whale is a small one, the town is agog, some boys gathered there, butchered the mammal, and have taken the head
because it is the most important part of the body.
“The whale has a bad odor on its own and for the next three to four days, the whole town will be smelling and it will be so strong but who cares, people are doing Thanksgiving right now.
Another indigene of the community, Promise Adaks, who confirmed the incident said the people are thanking God for the provision of the big whake.
He said, ‘Do you know that if one can get a chunk as big as a cow head which is about N65,000 in the market now, that will feed him and his family for a week?
“For the next one or two weeks from now, the people will no longer buy meat because there will be meat for them. It’s a gift from heaven in the Tinubu’s hard economy.”
The Guardian
