“I’ve never, ever seen anything like this before, quite a remarkable thing to witness, and the sheer size of that whale is just gobsmacking.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She said the animal died the following night and was positively identified by researchers as a pygmy blue whale through photographs and tissue samples.<\/p>\n
Charles Darwin University (CDU) marine life researcher Rachel Groom said while it was too early to tell why the whale became beached, it was an extremely rare occurrence.<\/p>\n
Researchers say the “extraordinary animal” was likely “well off course” based on satellite tracking data. (Supplied: Anindilyakwa Land & Sea Rangers)<\/p>\n
“I actually thought it’s probably a humpback, but then I saw the photos and like, oh my god, that’s actually a blue whale,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I was incredibly excited but also sad because there was no way that animal was going to survive.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She said two pygmy blue whales had beached in the NT before: the first in 1981 and again in 2003.<\/p>\n
That meant 22 years had passed between the first two beachings and another 23 years between the 2003 incident and last week’s.<\/p>\n
“Maybe it’s coincidence but could also relate to climatic events as well,” she said.<\/p>\n
“This is a pretty exceptional finding. It’s an extraordinary animal, and it’s well off course from what we know from satellite tracking records.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/22fc3fe21e5430ea9b565c6c12ef5b0e.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Pygmy blue whales are typically found in the Indian and Southern Pacific oceans. (Supplied: Anindilyakwa Land & Sea Rangers)<\/p>\n
Fellow CDU researcher Carol Palmer said based on everything she could confirm, it was likely the first time a pygmy blue whale had ever been recorded in the Gulf of Carpentaria.<\/p>\n
“Over a number of years, they’ve satellite tagged six pygmy blue whales off [Western Australia], and they go to Timor-Leste and up to Indonesia, where they give birth,” she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Palmer said the samples taken could help confirm the whale’s sex and potentially some other data through DNA analysis.<\/p>\n
“It’s quite long and tall but very skinny \u2026 it’s all a bit of a worry really,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It makes me very sad.”<\/p>\n
Nature to take its course<\/p>\n
Anindilyakwa rangers are now trying to work out how best to manage the whale’s carcass, which is still sitting off the coast in a popular hunting location for traditional owners.<\/p>\n
“Every traditional owner I’ve spoken to is absolutely gobsmacked and mortified,” Ms Eden said.<\/p>\n
![\"Shoreline](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/e25588f3767a3809f709a45e7b2d99c5.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Groote Eylandt is off the coast of Blue Mud Bay in Arnhem Land, south of Nhulunbuy, and home to the Indigenous Anindilyakwa people. (ABC News: Erin Parke)<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, [because of] the size of the whale and the location of it, we’re unable to get any large vessels in there,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Groote has a lot of mammals in the water [so] that unfortunately, nature will take its course.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ms Eden said she had already seen tiger sharks begin feeding on the whale as its carcass continued to degrade naturally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pygmy blue whale has beached itself and died on the coast of Groote Eylandt in the Northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1154718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3843],"tags":[314071,166862,125919,728,314069,314070,36727,314068,4738,70,16,15],"class_list":["post-1154717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-beached","tag-charles-darwin-university","tag-died","tag-environment","tag-groote-eylandt","tag-gulf-of-carpentaria","tag-historic","tag-pygmy-blue-whale","tag-rare-sighting","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117113960733219931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1154717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1154718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1154717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1154717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1154717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1b3575a45b7cbb9352f76c1d249a14c2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Drone](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/77d8a21f1b4691985692bb7a045926ee.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n