Minke whale washes ashore in North Truro

By Wheeler Cowperwaite
Posted Jul 20, 2019

A minke whale washed ashore late Friday night on Beach Point in North Truro.

“It was reported to the Center for Coastal Studies as floating off the shore yesterday morning,” said Melanie Mahoney, rescue communications officer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Mahoney said her group will be performing a necropsy on the animal to determine the cause of death.

“My guess is they’ll try to get it out as soon as possible,” she said.

Plans on where the necropsy will be performed have not yet been determined, Mahoney said, although there were plans to take samples from the animal later Saturday afternoon.

“Usually they try to do (the necropsy) in place, to not damage any findings they might have,” Mahoney said.

Provincetown resident James Weigle said he was walking along the beach Saturday morning and first thought it was some kind of inflatable beach toy.

“I got closer and it looked kind of like plastic,” Weigle said. “Some people have these giant balloons, then I realized they have the tape around it.”

According to Scott Landry, director of the marine animal entanglement response program at the Center for Coastal Studies, there was nothing obvious that would determine the cause of the whale’s death. The center warned the U.S. Coast Guard and local harbormasters about the carcass after it was reported by a recreational boater in the bay, and alerted IFAW, Landry said.

Landry said the whale was floating belly-up and he took underwater footage, which he has yet to study.

The whale that washed ashore measured 23 feet long, which Mahoney described as a “sub-adult.”

“It’s not a calf and it’s not full grown,” she said.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, minke whales grow up to 35 feet, live up to 50 years and weigh up to 20,000 pounds.

The threats to their welfare include whaling, entanglement in fishing gear, ocean noise, habitat disturbance and vessel strikes.