On december 24, 2020 around 10:00 am, a stranded humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) on Punta de Mita was reported to the Banderas Bay stranding network, so staff of PROFEPA and GRIMMA went to the site to activate the marine mammal stranding protocol.

It was an adult female, lifeless, and it did not have any signs or wounds that could indicate entanglement, collision with a boat or attack by predators that could cause its death.

The team had the support of the staff from the Resort, and for that day the team asked the assistance of Punta de Mita tour operators and their boats to try to tow the animal out to sea, with no success because of the condition of the sea and the power of the boats were not enough to even move the animal, adding that during the development of these maneuvers night hours had already been reached so it also became risky for the team on the field.

For this reason, it was decided that the next day maneuvers with machinery would begin to bury the specimen in situ and thus prevent its decomposition process from occurring in the open and generate a focus of infection, the maneuvers culminated on December 26.

The stranding network, PROFEPA and GRIMMA would like to extent a big thank you to all the persons that helped during the whole event (including the initial report).