It was well into the evening, everyone in the news bus froze as a group of young men scampered past in a haste armed with matchetes, axes and cudgels, they thankfully breezed past us without a sideward glace.

But realising we were journalists one of the amateur hunters took up the role of ‘tatafo’-a talebearer. “come and see this fish as big as a house” he said.

We stared at him like he was moonstruck, but then he didn’t need any convincing we were the heathen.His other friends congregated nearby, quickly sensing the opportunity to fleece us of some cash.

Curiosity however took a hold of us and we offered the young men a free ride to their spectacle however baiting them with cash at the end of the tunnel.

The vehicle reached a stop at Elf bus stop at Lekki, and the smell of fish and sea water nearly drove everyone seasick, but not our cotravellers.They were out in a jiffy sprinting towards fellow bounty hunters.We stood in amazement.This house-like fish was

[img]http://arrestedworld.files./2010/11/whale41.jpg[/img]
[img]http://arrestedworld.files./2010/11/whale3.jpg[/img]
[img]http://arrestedworld.files./2010/11/whale6[/img]

http://arrestedworld./2010/11/05/whale-in-nigeria/

and this is the best picture the journalist could take?

"Puverty is no state for any mortal man.It makes him a beast fed on dust"

Why are my people so poor?

Oh! i weep for this country
See hunger in action!
If this had happened overseas, U'd will see conservationist trying desperately to save the poor brute's life and crying if unsuccessful.
But here in Lagos, na free wack, chai!

We need a better picture. Something taken with a still camera and not interlaced.

Did they start cutting it while it was still alive? If so, that's horrible. Very horrible.

Seun:

We need a better picture. Something taken with a still camera and not interlaced.

i wonder oooo

no it was dead, it was dark at night, apologies for the poor pics, but then you are a looking a 15 storey mammal and a mad crowd, id get in better pictures today neverthelesss

What sort of picture is this?

I'm sure that picture was extracted from a camera phone video, that expalins motion blur and the interlacing!

I guess it is just me cos i can't see the big fish.

vwvw:

no it was dead, it was dark at night, apologies for the poor pics, but then you are a looking a 15 storey mammal and a mad crowd, id get in better pictures today neverthelesss

Why not just post the video for us!

na2day!:


Oh! i weep for this country  

See hunger in action!

If this had happened overseas, U'd will see conservationist trying desperately to save the poor brute's life and crying if unsuccessful.

But here in Lagos, na free wack, chai!  

@^^^

You think na only for naija similar happens, huh?

Overseas? How about closer home?

Check out how this dead bull elephant in Zimbabwe in less than 2 two hours ended . . .


^{Fallen giant: The corpse of the bull elephant lies undisturbed in deep scrubland in Gonarezhou National Park}

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^{The desperate descend: Within minutes, starving villagers arrive at the carcass}

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^{Battle begins: Soon, the villagers are fighting to get the urgently-needed meat}

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^{Audience: People gather on a hill a short distance away to watch village men get to work}

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^{Brutally effective: Nothing goes to waste, with the skin, trunk and ears all removed}

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^{Starving: Zimbabweans grapple with each other as they set upon the elephant to get meat}

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^{Stripped: After less than two hours, only bones remain. Even these will later be taken}

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^{Desperate: A blood-spattered villager
and, right, the spot where the bull elephant lay is completely cleared just 24 hours after it was found}
[center][/center]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1257292/The-Mail-apologises-readers-pictures-speak-eloquently-politician-desperate-plight-starving-people-Zimbabwe.html

Pls, never compare us with Zimbabwe o, our case is not as hopeless as theirs o!
Do u know that the rats in that country are becoming an endangered specie, cos thats the easiest source of protein.
Our case will not get to that level in Jesus name

well before we get distracted with quailty of pics or not. It is undeniable that hundreds of people hacked and are still hacking away that mammal for food till this moment. Food for thought. How hungry can a poor fellow brother get

There was a time in the 90's people ran around a dead whale in Lagos and cut it into pieces. The whale was dead for days and already decomposing yet some people didn't care as they found the free fish. Hunger and poverty is no friend to anybody.

This is how AP/The Independent (of the Uk) reported the earlier event in 2001:

Scavenging crowds strip beached whale carcass

AP


Saturday, 18 August 2001

Slum dwellers have torn apart the carcass of a blue whale that became beached near an elite suburb of Nigeria's largest city.


Slum dwellers have torn apart the carcass of a blue whale that became beached near an elite suburb of Nigeria's largest city.

The whale washed up on Wednesday at Lagos' Bar Beach. By the time reporters arrived on Friday, throngs of people were scavenging the remaining few bones just visible on the edge of the surf.

Gangs of youths wielding clubs and sticks were forcing a steady stream of scavengers and curious bystanders – mainly workers from office blocks in the Victoria Island suburb – to pay an "admission charge" to look. Women and boys hawked pieces of the fatty flesh.

"The meat is good," said JJ Ibrahim, who offered pieces wrapped in magazine pages. "Most of it is gone, so you better buy fast."

It was unclear whether the whale was alive when it arrived.

Although Nigeria has oil wealth, the vast majority of its people remain desperately poor. In Lagos, a rough-and-tumble city with some 13 million inhabitants, meat is expensive because it is often imported from Europe.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/scavenging-crowds-strip-beached-whale-carcass-666082.html

johnie:


Although Nigeria has oil wealth, the vast majority of its people remain desperately poor. In Lagos, a rough-and-tumble city with some 13 million inhabitants, meat is expensive because it is often imported from Europe.

Incredulous reporting!!!

johnie:

This is how AP/Dail Independent (of the Uk) reported the earlier event in 2001:

Scavenging crowds strip beached whale carcass

AP


Saturday, 18 August 2001


Slum dwellers have torn apart the carcass of a blue whale that became beached near an elite suburb of Nigeria's largest city.


Slum dwellers have torn apart the carcass of a blue whale that became beached near an elite suburb of Nigeria's largest city.

The whale washed up on Wednesday at Lagos' Bar Beach. By the time reporters arrived on Friday, throngs of people were scavenging the remaining few bones just visible on the edge of the surf.

Gangs of youths wielding clubs and sticks were forcing a steady stream of scavengers and curious bystanders – mainly workers from office blocks in the Victoria Island suburb – to pay an "admission charge" to look. Women and boys hawked pieces of the fatty flesh.

"The meat is good," said JJ Ibrahim, who offered pieces wrapped in magazine pages. "Most of it is gone, so you better buy fast."

It was unclear whether the whale was alive when it arrived.

Although Nigeria has oil wealth, the vast majority of its people remain desperately poor. In Lagos, a rough-and-tumble city with some 13 million inhabitants, meat is expensive because it is often imported from Europe.

where did u get that report from

it is the north and kwara that provide them meat

Damn, straight up monsters!

And here's Reuben Abati's write-up on the issue in 2001:


The Whale hunters of Victoria Island


By Reuben Abati  (EMAIL)
Friday, August 24, 2001 


Something really interesting is going on at the Lagos Bar Beach in Victoria Island. Close to two weeks ago, a baby whale was washed ashore by the tides. It rested by the beach, looking dead. Someone saw it. Word went round. And a big commotion followed. Lagos residents trooped to the beach. Motorists changed direction and went towards the beach. Passers-by stopped. Journalists began to make a story out of it. Many of these persons have probably never seen a whale in their lives. Which is understandable. The whale is the biggest fish in the ocean. The blue whale, in particular, is about the size of two elephants combined in one, its heart alone is equivalent to the weight of a Mercedes Benz 200. It is a rare animal. According to experts, it is endangered. I mean, it is not the kind of fish that would be washed ashore, and you'd look the other way. This novelty, in part, explains the drama that is being built around the sudden appearance of a baby whale on the coast of Lagos.

[b]In some other countries, let's say Britain, the event would have attracted the attention of government and other relevant authorities. Scientists, marine biologists, oceanographers and so on would have been drafted to the beach to take a look at the fish: to determine its nature and antecedents, why it is ashore, and whether its presence has any direct connection with certain movements within the ocean, and the surrounding environment and the implications of all this, for human life and society. At the end of the investigation, if the animal is still alive, it could be returned to the ocean, or it could be taken to a research institute. If it is dead, of course, it would be disposed off after the due process of scientific inquiry would have been concluded. That would have been the case in a society that is genuinely curious about the world around and about us; in a society that is, where science means something important, where animals have rights, and the level of desperation is not yet nasty and brutish. [/b]

But faced with a similar situation, what has happened in our own case? What are our scientists saying about the dead whale on the shores of Lagos? Has anybody done its post-mortem? Is government showing interest in the matter? The obvious answer is in the negative. And this, comical as it may seem, says a lot about our society and our circumstances as human beings, living in a country called Nigeria. [b]What has happened and is still happening, is now fairly common knowledge. Immediately the drama began, some area boys cordoned off the area leading to the spot where the baby whale is. They then erected toll gates at which they collected money from persons who wanted to see the fish, and possibly have a bit of it. You pay the toll; you are allowed access. In other words, those area boys had immediately seen the death of the whale and the novelty of it, as an opportunity to make quick money. Which is the way it is in this country. Nigerians do not joke with any kind of opportunity once it can bring in some cheap lucre. Did people pay the tolls? Of course, they did. For, between the area boys and the spectators, for whom the spectacle of a dead whale at the Bar Beach has become another football match, there isn't much difference.

Three days later, posters and calendars showing the dead whale and the crowd of scavengers feeding on it were already on sale at the Oshodi fly over and in parts of Victoria Island. I am not making this up. I actually saw the calendar and posters. In fact, that was how I managed to realise the seriousness of the big show at the Bar Beach. The Guardian on Sunday story on it (August 19), especially the accompanying photograph conveys the full import of it all. A student of Animal Husbandry was interested in seeing what a whale looks like. But she belonged in a minority group. Majority of the persons who went to see the animal, and managed to get close, were armed with cutlasses, axes, swords, matchetes, blades - just about anything that could cut a portion of the fish. These whale meat hunters were not bothered that the animal was dead. [/b]


It is possible that the whale had been poisoned by some other hunters elsewhere, and it found itself in Nigeria by accident. We have heard how some animals carry some deadly diseases. It is possible that this particular whale at the Lagos Bar Beach is carrying the virus of a yet unknown disease that is worse than HIV/AIDS. Obviously, the meat hunters did not consider that possibility. They just went after the fish. Hack! Whack! Hack!, they sliced it apart. Each person who managed to cut off a bit showed off his portion to the crowd - the prize of his curiosity and labour - and the crowd hailed. Television crews eventually went to the Bar Beach, and filmed the show. That didn't discourage the crowd. An old man and a younger man ended up quarrelling over a piece of the meat. In due course, flies rested on the dead whale. Still, the ceremony continued. One young man sliced off a fresh part of the whale and swallowed it. Another particularly histrionic young man was said to have showed up the following day, at the scene, munching something. To whoever cared to listen to him, the young man reportedly declared that he was eating the dead whale's meat. By Monday, this week, the whale hunters were still at work. Who knows, they may still be there, even as you read this piece.

We cannot stop a dead whale from showing up at the Lagos Bar Beach. But it is curious that the madness over the baby whale has been going on without any statement from government, or the relevant authorities. [b]The Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology, and the Institute of Oceanography are only a few minutes away from the Bar Beach - both institutions are yet to say anything official about the dangers of eating an unknown dead whale by the beach. The entire incident reminds me, invariably of the stress that had been generated in Europe by the "foot and mouth disease" and "the mad cow disease". I recall writing at the time that the animals that were slaughtered in Europe to prevent the spread of those diseases should have been sent to Africa. For us here, at least in this country, meat is meat. The dead whale at the Lagos Bar Beach proves this point, quite strongly. The matter is so serious. If a dead crocodile, or elephant, or hippopotamus shows up tomorrow by the Atlantic, Lagosians will feast on it. They will turn the meat into suya or use it to prepare fresh peppersoup. They would even quarrel over it as they are now doing over the dead whale. The first man to see the animal will claim it as his personal property. One of the present whale hunters, when reminded that he was eating dead, flies-infested meat had declared that it didn't matter: "Na iced fish. What is the difference between this and iced fish. Even if na Mammy Water send am, we go chop am." Reminded that the fish may have foot and mouth disease, the man laughed. "Even if na head and tail disease sef, I go chop am". Well? [/b]

By the way, I had really wanted to go to the scene to take part in this Bar Beach show. It is not what you think. I wasn't going there to take my own pound of whale flesh. But to see the whale hunters, eating whale meat, cutting it, and actually enjoying it. I would have loved to interview the whale hunters to find out how the meat tastes. Is it a special kind of fish truly? But when I learnt that I'd have to pay toll fees to some area boys who were now exercising ownership rights over the whale, I abandoned the idea. What is the matter with those area boys, anyway? The whale, to push a point, is in Federal territory. Okay, Lagos is a littoral state, and the indigenes are claiming the Bar Beach. In any case, I didn't go again. But the matter of the dead whale soon became important to me. Now and then, I travel down to Victoria Island from this part of the city, to eat fish pepper soup at a particular joint. A friend of mine insists on inviting me for that purpose on a fairly regular basis. And so, the other day, he had phoned to say that we should meet at the same venue to eat fish pepper soup. I am so sorry, I had to decline. I had to cook up an excuse. I don't consider it a good idea to go around Victoria Island at this period, eating fish pepper soup. You could end up eating dead whale meat. Who knows where and how all the flesh of the dead whale at the Beach ended up? I mean, I don't want anybody to set me up[b]. In fact, I dare say that some of those whale hunters that we saw on television looked like peppersoup sellers looking for cheap fish. [/b]


But the short of it all is about the poverty in our land. Life has become so cheap that Nigerians would eat anything: dead dog, dead cat, dead ram, dead cow, You and I sit in our comfortable offices, drink tea, wear ties and assume that that is the way the whole world goes. But No. Our compatriots are at the beach eating the dead meat of a dead whale. They probably know that there are risks involved. But they have since passed the point of caring -simply because they do not really have much choice in this land where hunger is the only reality in many homes. The whale at the beach is a short-hand metaphor for the tragedy in the lives of our compatriots. When life loses value, the people are bound to race to the precipice with clear and open eyes. Pity.

http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/abati/082401.html

A 2007 occurence at Seme:

Massive Whale Swept Ashore At Seme Border

By Laide Adekunle

A massive whale was swept ashore yesterday morning at Seme border. [b]The whale, which was already dead, was swept into the Customs quarters at Seme by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Hundreds of people were seen this morning hacking at the fish, which was already smelling badly. But the stench did not deter the emergency butchers who all scrambled for a piece of the action.[/b]As the crowd was becoming uncontrollable, the Customs officers chased everybody out of their quarters and later set the fish ablaze.

Not long ago, a dead whale was also swept ashore at the Lagos Bar Beach. It also attract a huge crowd and some people hacked it to pieces and carried them off despite the odious stench it was emitting.

http://www.thenewsng.com/modules/zmagazine/article.php?articleid=19975

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-88626.0.html#msg1617421

Similar occurence at Geriba Beach in Brazil last month:

RIO DE JANEIRO - A 25-TONNE humpback whale that has run aground on a beach in the posh resort town of Buzios, needs to be towed out to sea by a ship with the oil giant Petrobrasm, authorities said.

A towing ship arrived at Geriba beach in Buzios and experts tried to figure out the best way to move it without harming it, firefighters told Globo's G1 site.

Dozens of tourists looked on as the rescue operation got into gear.

'It is quite complicated, but we are going to try to save the whale,' said Buzios mayor Mirinho Braga. This is the 90th humpback to run aground in Brazil this year, a record high number that has scientists baffled, officials said. -- AFP

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_595827.html

Pictures from :http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Rescuers+Brazil+save+beached+humpback+whale/3730272/story.html

I am still shocked a supposedly seasoned journalist like Reuben Abati described the blue whale a fish. Smh. @ alloy emeka whales , purpoises, dolphins are nt fish. They are marine dwelling mammals.

Abeg make una keep quiet. Make dem no chop before? is it not the same fish people buy expensive boats to go out in the ocean to seek? One washes up in your backyard and u r supposed to push it back into the Ocean? for wetin?
R we supposed to copy the hypocrisy of the West that would spend millions in rescuing animals but turn the other way when its human lives involved in the name of donor fatigue? Does anyone living in todays Nigeria really expect the Ministry of Health to rush out to conduct an "Autopsy' on a dead whale? Oh Come on people. how long does it take them to respond to a national epidemic?
When some Nigerians talk sometimes u cant help but believe the only thing about Nigerian they know is the bit they watch on AIT and NTA.  
 We've got more serious issues abeg. If a fish washes up on a hungry mans backyard, make e carry axe go cut him share, its God's blessing. For those of u yapping, make una go sleep. if i started a thread about a hungry family how many of you would even bother to open it? And u think u're showing your Humane side by yapping in favour of a dead whale!   Nonsense.  Hisseeeeeeeesssssss

this is definetely not food please
[img]http://arrestedworld.files./2010/11/whale6-copy.jpg[/img]

SORRY GUYS, BUT U WOULDN'T IT BELIEVE IT THE ENTIRE WHALE HAS BEEN HACKED TO PIECES, POTS, PLEASE AVOID PEPPER SOUP JOINTS IN LEKKI UNTIL NEXT YEAR

wesley80:

Abeg make una keep quiet. Make dem no chop before? is it not the same fish people buy expensive boats to go out in the ocean to seek? One washes up in your backyard and u r supposed to push it back into the Ocean? for wetin?
R we supposed to copy the hypocrisy of the West that would spend millions in rescuing animals but turn the other way when its human lives involved in the name of donor fatigue? Does anyone living in todays Nigeria really expect the Ministry of Health to rush out to conduct an "Autopsy' on a dead whale? Oh Come on people. how long does it take them to respond to a national epidemic?
When some Nigerians talk sometimes u cant help but believe the only thing about Nigerian they know is the bit they watch on AIT and NTA.
We've got more serious issues abeg. If a fish washes up on a hungry mans backyard, make e carry axe go cut him share, its God's blessing. For those of u yapping, make una go sleep. if i started a thread about a hungry family how many of you would even bother to open it? And u think u're showing your Humane side by yapping in favour of a dead whale! Nonsense. Hisseeeeeeeesssssss

Brazil is supposed to be a developing country!

@johnnie, So Brazil is a developing country abi? And by what indices are u using to rank Brazil alongside Ngr? Have u heard of 'Human Capital development' before? They just had an election and elected a woman as president, do u think u'll see a female Nigerian president in your lifetime? Abi you no know say development get levels?

Am so proud of Nigerians.
Atleast they are not eat cutting up each other corpses.

LOL i don't know why every single action known to man a nigerian will ever take will be condemned by everyone including other condemned nigerians.

its an animal. who cares?
congrats to brazil, this is nigeria. our attitude on animals isn't the same as theirs and nothing is wrong with either. What kind of nonsense country throws free meat into the ocean then after a hard days animal rescue rewards themselves with fried chicken and steak. lol.

If this were to happen in, say, Ghana, I bet that whale woulda been pushed back into the sea, no matter if it was dead or alive.