The carcass of a 1.5-meter long finless porpoise was found at the Central pier yesterday morning, marking the second dead porpoise found in three days.
On Friday, the Hong Kong Ocean Park Conservation Foundation received a report of a finless porpoise carcass found near the Chai Wan Breakwater.
Marine police went to the Central pier upon receiving a report from a passerby who discovered the carcass in the waters at around 7am yesterday, two meters from Central Piers 6 and 7.
It took the Marine police officers over two hours to retrieve the carcass from the waters. The case was listed as an animal carcass found.
The carcass was severely decomposed with its head missing.
The area was then cordoned off and a four-man response team from the conservation foundation were called to the scene at around 10am.
After preliminary examination, the carcass was found to be that of a finless porpoise. The team then took the carcass back to Ocean Park for an autopsy and further laboratory tests.
But the carcass might have already been discovered two days earlier by a Facebook user.
"Today I smelled a stench when walking along the Central pier, and found a dolphin carcass floating in the sea," posted a web user surnamed Wong on Friday evening, along with three photos of what appears to be a porpoise carcass near the Central pier.
On Friday, another finless porpoise, measuring 1.7 meters, was found near the Chai Wan Breakwater. It was classified as severely decomposed by the conservation foundation.
The carcass was brought to Ocean Park on the same day for a detailed autopsy and laboratory tests.
The foundation appealed to the public to call its 1823 hotline if they find any suspected stranding cases of whales, dolphins, sharks or skates, and provide information on the time, location, as well as photos of the stranding, so that its action group can follow up on the cases as soon as possible.
"We also urge the public to take their own garbage with them before leaving the beach and avoid using shampoo and shower gel on board when carrying out water sports activities to avoid direct pollution of the marine environment by untreated chemicals," the foundation said.
