For the second time this month, a dead whale was spotted off of the Delaware coast last week.
The whale was originally spotted last Wednesday morning off of Rehoboth Beach near the North Shores area making its way south down the coast.
When the female whale was first spotted, she was already dead, floating upside down. She was pulled onto the beach on Thursday morning at Delaware Seashore State Park
Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute Executive Director Suzanne Thurman.
"We're still waiting for the diagnostics to come back. As far as the gross observations from the necropsy we did observe some blunt force trauma that seemed to be behind her head, and I can only say seems to be because she was floating out there. She was already moderately decomposed and then rolling in the surf zone," said Thurman.
Thurman notes the whale was 30 feet, ten inches long, still a baby according to Thurman. Full size humpback whales reach 50 to 55 feet.
She adds the whale seemed to be in relatively good shape, but more will be known about its health once necropsy results get back.
Thurman says this isn’t the first dead whale spotted off of Delaware’s coast this month which isn’t normal.
"It is unusual. We had a fin whale - a juvenile fin whale - in an unusual location by the Delaware Memorial Bridge earlier in the month,” said Thurman. “And so we did attempt to respond to that one, but it was inaccessible due to its location. So we couldn't get really great information on it."
Thurman notes it’s possible both whales might have been victims of ship strikes judging by the latest whale’s head trauma and the site that the first whale was seen in an area heavily used by ships.
She adds three whales have been found dead in the past nine months, far exceeding the norm seen in Delaware as Thurman says usually they usually see one every few years.
