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Dear colleques, On Sunday 10th July, a sailor discovered the carcass of a 17.1 m long male fin whale in the Greifswalder Bodden of the German Baltic Sea. Measurements have been taken and dissection has been conducted by the German Oceanographic Museum on the 11th and 12th of July. Judging the status of decay the animal might have been dead since a week or two. The fin whale seemed to be in good body conditions with an up to 10 cm thick blubber layer and food mash in the intestine. The stomach was empty. No external signs of injuries could be detected. We assume that the fin whale died of stress due to entering very shallow waters. We would be very interested in any feed back on recent sightings of a fin whale in the Baltic Sea. For pictures look at http://www.meeresmuseum.de/start/index.htm , click on "Aktuell", or go directly to http://www.meeresmuseum.de/finnwal_2005.pdf Best regards, Ursula Verfuß ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Deutsches Meeresmuseum German Oceanographic Museum Ursula Verfuß Katharinenberg 14/20 18439 Stralsund GERMANY phone: +49 (0)3831-2650-390 fax: +49 (0)3831-2650-249 email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~