| Summary: | On the 1st of November 1997, a 13-meter long female fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ) washed ashore on a Belgian beach near Ostend, Belgium. It was only the third recorded stranding of a fin whale this century in Belgium. In contrast with the animals of 1939 and 1978 which came ashore very decomposed and even incomplete, this animal was very fresh, which made a thourough scientific investigation possible. The animal bad clearly died very recently, at sea, not on the beach. The autopsy revealed that the blubber thickness was extremely reduced. In the portal vein a chronic thrombosis, containing a large number of worms (probably nematods) was found. This thrombosis and its parasites will be further investigated at the university of Liège. Of most important tissues (liver, kidney, fat, muscle, .), samples were taken for contaminant analysis. The skeleton of the animal will be mounted, and will probably be on display in a new museum in Ostend.
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