The first indication of a cetacean stranding on the shores of Ischia was of Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) on the 23rd of April 1770 in Forio, in the locality of Citara. This is a particularly interesting datum because it represents the first certificated indication ever in Campania region, and one of the earliest in Italy. Vincenzo Florio reported, indeed, on the Neapolitan Annals of that time, of a young male of about 8 meters in an advanced stage of putrefaction. This individual was bearing a large gangrened wound in the rear part of its body and this was recognized as the probable cause of death. From the account edited by the canonical Vincenzo Onorato resulted that in the animal’s stomach was found “the whole skin of a large monk seal”. This note is very interesting but it must be taken with caution. The skeleton of the “Cachalot” was then located and preserved in the Borbonic Museum (today’s National Archaeologic Museum of Naples).

The “bones” were then lodged in the “depository” of the University of Naples and in 1862 they were given away to the Museum of Comparative Anatomy of Bologna (Maio & Picariello, 2000). Towards the end of the ‘800 we lost track of these remnants. Another part of the skeleton, and precisely the upper jaw, had been preserved in the Torrione of Forio’s municipality as it is stated in an old document edited by the canonical Vincenzo Onorato. Besides, the stranding had been admirably illustrated in an amazing painting of Gennaro Migliaccio conserved in Naples, at S.Martino National Museum.

A jaw of a large cetacean is still present in the courtyard facing the already mentioned tower. This remnant is more than 3 m long, and this makes the original animal, to which it belonged, at least 10 m long. There are many chances that these bones left belong to the sperm whale stranded in 1770 (Maio et al., 2005). Recently the University of Naples “Federico II” asked to the municipality of Forio to acquire the precious bone in order to exhibit it in the historical section of the Zoological Museum.

After the establishment of the Cetaceans Research Centre, two sperm whale strandings have been signalled. The first on the 27th of April 1996 in Forio (Ischia) was found adrift at sea, a mile off Punta Imperatore. It was an individual of about 7 m in an advanced stage of putrefaction and its carcass was sunk. The second was a male of 9,6 m that stranded on the 15th of August 1997 in Ischia. The animal had died a short time before, rammed by a vessel (it was showing three large wounds caused by a propeller). Chemical analysis were carried out on this animal to determine the heavy metal load in its tissues. The values resulted from the analysis turned out to be irrelevant (Maio et all., 2001).