Another juvenile humpback whale was found dead in Delaware waters Monday.
It’s the third deceased whale found off the Delaware coast in the last month. A fourth whale was spotted in May of last year.
The Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute is a nonprofit that responds to stranded and deceased marine animals.
MERR executive director Suzanne Thurman said four deceased whales in nine months is not a common occurrence.
“No, it's not a normal amount,” Thurman said. “So normally, we might see one of these large whale species every two to three years that strand here… But we don't have a common denominator at this time other than vessel strike.”
Thurman estimated the whale to be about 35 feet long or larger and of juvenile or sub-adult age. The body is not fresh, and Thurman said it likely came into the bay through the Indian River Inlet.
This year’s increase in deceased whale sightings also overlaps with MERR’s busiest time of year, seal season.
Thurman says she hopes weather and wave conditions improve to allow her team to tow the whale Wednesday.
From there, MERR scientists will perform a necropsy to find out the whale’s cause of death. The findings are also used for research, which includes answering questions about human effects on marine life.
“With anything that's going into the ocean that is of an industrial project nature, that's going to impact anything having to do with prey, having to do with migration routes or having to do with underwater noise pollution. Those are all things we look at because they could have an adverse impact on these animals,” Thurman said.
The last whale found deceased in Delaware had injuries likely from a large ship and had its tympanic membrane intact, meaning seismic testing was not responsible for the whale’s death.
Thurman said she hopes to tow the whale Wednesday to a beach and perform a better post mortem examination. The whale is currently belly-down in the water, so Thurman can’t even determine the whale’s sex.
“There's nothing we can do for it, so we do our best to do a thorough investigation to try to find out if there was disease present, if there was parasitic infestation, which can be quite common if there are signs of injuries, which more often than not is from a large ship.”
For now, Thurman doesn’t have a cause of death.
“It's a tragedy to lose any of these animals, and so it's a sad occurrence. And we'll do everything we can to try to find out what happened to it.”
The efforts to bring the whale to shore will take a team, including folks from state parks, police and heavy equipment operators. MERR will also provide information to people who decide to come see the whale.
