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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