THE four-day effort to rescue a 3-ton sperm whale that was stranded twice in the Daya Bay sea area has come to a sad end.

    At around 11 a.m. yesterday, experts pronounced the 12.5-meter-long whale dead.

    The whale’s body has been towed to Huizhou Port. An autopsy will be conducted by experts from Sun Yat-sen University and aided by experts from Hong Kong Ocean Park today.

    Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences thought that the whale might have died from choking after it was stranded. They suggested making the whale into a specimen for science popularization and research. According to the director of the Huizhou fishery administration, the water where the whale was stranded was only 1 meter deep.

    A team from the Shenzhen Museum arrived at Huizhou Port yesterday, hoping the specimen could be settled at an independent exhibition area at the museum.

    The whale was found stranded in a fishing net Sunday and was rescued. Experts suspected that it had problems with sound navigation and ranging system as it had been wavering for hours in the shallow water and had trouble swimming back into deep sea after it was saved.

    On Monday, it was stranded again and a rescue operation was conducted by Dapeng and Huizhou fishery administrations.

    Experts Tuesday night allowed it to die a natural death as a miracle was unlikely. (Han Ximin)