LAGOS RESIDENTS FEAST ON DEAD WHALE

Lagos - There were chaotic scenes as hundreds of residents along the Alfa Beach coastline in the Lekki area scrambled to skin a dead whale that had been washed ashore the Lagos coastline.
The giant animal was sighted in the morning by a few residents who called more people to the scene.
A man who witnessed the incident, Wale Agbaje, described the events as chaotic with the residents struggling with cutlasses and axes to get a chunk of the whale.
“The scene was really something to behold. Within hours that the dead whale was seen, residents in the area began to rush to the beach with big cutlasses and containers. At some point, some residents were fighting among themselves,” he said.
CAJ News established that officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Environment arrived at the scene later in the day and chased the residents away.
One of the officials, who did not want his name mentioned because he was not authorized to comment on the incident, said it is worrisome that the residents were oblivious of the dangers of eating the animal.
“What the people did is very dangerous. They are cutting and taking home the meat of a dead whale when they do not even know the cause of the sea creature’s death,” he said.
Eating whale meat may be a human health hazard as the animals are particularly vulnerable to environmental contaminants.
These can cause neurotoxicity (nerve damage), reproductive and developmental disorders, immune system suppression, liver damage, skin irritation and endocrine disruption.