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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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Dead minke whale hauled ashore in Barnstable

By Mary Ann Bragg Posted Sep 29, 2018

BARNSTABLE — A minke whale carcass hauled to shore Saturday afternoon at the state boat ramp is the third found in local waters this year, as federal officials remain focused on elevated minke deaths on the East Coast.

“We thought the animal had a good chance of surviving,” said Brian Sharp, marine mammal research and rescue manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The rescuers first came across the 18-foot minke when it was reported alive Friday morning in Wellfleet Harbor, near the mouth of the Herring River, Sharp said. Throughout the day Friday, the IFAW rescue team urged and then bodily escorted the minke out to sea, with the mammal strapped to a boat, he said. With a satellite tag attached to the minke, rescuers eventually released it beyond Jeremy Point and into Cape Cod Bay, Sharp said.

But as the IFAW crew watched activity from the tag Saturday morning, they saw that the whale was east of Barnstable Harbor.

“We went out and sure enough, found the whale dead,” Sharp said. The whale was pulled onto an IFAW trailer at the state boat ramp at Barnstable Harbor.

Minke whale deaths are under scrutiny by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, which has declared an unusual mortality event since January 2017 along the East Coast. Since the event was declared, 42 minke strandings have occurred from Maine to South Carolina. The whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but they are not listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“This is No. 3 this year,” Barnstable Natural Resource Officer Devon Harrington said of the minke carcasses on town property.

A necropsy will be performed on the 3,500-pound whale within the next day or two, Sharp said.

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180929/dead-minke-whale-hauled-ashore-in-barnstable