Biologists begin necropsy on whale

RYE — Marine scientists Wednesday began examining a beached whale to determine its cause of death.

The examination, called a necropsy, will help reveal what happened to the 18-year-old female humpback, which was first spotted floating 20 miles offshore by fishermen on Sunday.

“Ship strikes and large whale entanglements are two of the primary causes of non-natural mortality and that’s one of the things we’re going to be looking for,” said NOAA Fisheries agent David Morin. “There’s also a suite of scientists who have a standing authorization through a specific permit and they’re interested in different parts of the animal.

“The main concern, especially from NOAA Fisheries’ standpoint, is that I want to know why this animal perished,” Morin said.

The carcass of the 45-foot whale known as Snow Plow washed onto Foss Beach by Rye Harbor State Park Monday. At that time biologists determined it was in the third of four levels of decomposition. The summer’s heat had already started to liquefy the whale’s internal remains and decomposition gases ruptured the whale overnight.

Rye town officials met Tuesday to discuss details of the disposal and through a series of conference calls with the state, pushed forward with the necropsy on Wednesday. Morin said authorization from NOAA Fisheries is needed in order to even touch a marine mammal.

Through a NOAA permit, members of the New England Aquarium and other specialized biologists, started by cutting sections of the whale’s soft tissue and skin. Loaded into front-end loaders with help from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, the tissue was being disposed of in large Dumpsters nearby. Once the soft tissue and organs are removed, biologists can look more closely at the whale’s internal organs and bone structure.

As workers peel away the whale’s blubber, it will give them a better view of exterior injuries. New England Aquarium spokesman Tony Lacasse said the reason the whale died and washed ashore remained a mystery as of Wednesday afternoon.

“The big thing with this animal being 17 or 18 years old is that statistically she would be the equivalent of a 20-something or 30-something year old woman,” Lacasse said. “So you realize that it’s like ‘Boy, the likelihood of her dying in her prime is low.’”

According to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, humpback whales have a life expectancy of 45 to 50 years. Adult females measure 45 to 50 feet in length and weigh 25 to 40 tons.

Lacasse said this May a juvenile humpback whale was found off the coast of Duxbury, Mass., which looked abnormally skinny. After carefully looking over the whale, it was found to have a fractured jaw from a boat strike. “A broken jaw in nature is practically a death sentence,” Lacasse said.

“We may not know what happened today,” Morin said. “We may need to take some samples back to the lab and do some toxicology and try and figure out what’s going on.”

The skeleton of Snow Plow will be taken by Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife endangered species biologist Tom French. French, who specializes in prepping skeletons for museums, will bury the skeleton for up to two years to allow natural decomposition to clean the bones. The skeleton will then be exhumed for display at a museum to be determined later.

Morin said it is very rare for a whale to wash ashore either dead or alive on a New Hampshire coastline. The last time was in 2000 when a much smaller Minke whale found its way ashore. The last beached humpback was estimated to be around 1977.