Keep off dead whale – EPA cautions residents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has cautioned residents around the Dansoman beach in the Greater Accra Region to stay away from the site of the dead whale.

The agency said the sea mammal could explode due to the chemical reactions in its intestines as it continues to decay.

Director of Natural Resources at the EPA, Carl Fiati, who spoke to Class FM’s Ridwan Karim Dini Osman in an interview, also explained that because the cause of the whale’s death is unknown, it will be dangerous if people get into contact with the carcass due to pathogens from the whale, which was washed ashore in the early hours of Sunday 27 March 2016.

“The public must be advised; it is not safe going close to it because already, there is a foul odour and we don’t know what pathogens it might be carrying.

There is also the danger of it exploding; we don’t know how far it has deteriorated and if it is so bad, it can explode anytime. If it explodes it is almost like a bomb and can be injurious,” he stated.

Though the cause of the mammal’s death is yet to be known, residents are speculating that it may have died from a dynamite explosion. The sea waves swept the carcass ashore around 3am Sunday.

They also indicated that they were waiting for the traditional authorities in the area to perform certain rituals before the huge carcass would be buried.

It is estimated that over 20 dead whales have been washed ashore Ghana’s coast since 2009, predominantly in the Greater Accra, Central, and Western regions.