Minke whale carcass found at Humarock Beach
By Mary Ann Bragg
Posted Sep 10, 2019
SCITUATE — A minke whale carcass was found Monday afternoon in the surf at Humarock Beach, making for the fourth found in the region this summer.
At the beach, New England Aquarium’s marine animal rescue team found the carcass of a 22-foot-long sub-adult. The whale is believed to have died within the last few days.
The carcass had been significantly scavenged by sharks. A full necropsy couldn’t be performed because of the amount of tissue that had been eaten, but the good condition of the skin on the pectoral fins and back indicated that the whale had died recently.
There was no fishing gear or other evidence of human interaction that might have caused the death, the aquarium said.
Scituate town officials disposed of the carcass Tuesday morning.
Since July, minke carcasses have also washed up in Duxbury, Eastham and North Truro.
Minke whales are undergoing an unusual mortality event along the East Coast, with at least 66 having died since 2017, primarily in Massachusetts.
Full and partial necropsies on some of the carcasses have shown human interactions and infectious diseases could be attributed to the deaths. But the findings are inconsistent and more research is needed, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Minke whales in the U. S. are not endangered, but they are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
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