Necropsy reveals no obvious trauma

RYE — Marine biologists were unable to immediately determine a cause of death during a necropsy Wednesday of a female humpback whale that washed up on Foss Beach Monday.

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation and members of the New England Aquarium worked into the night Wednesday, and around 10 p.m., finally picked up the last vertebrae and completed removal of the 40-ton mammal.

Throughout the day on Wednesday, workers carefully cut away soft tissue and organs from the carcass and loaded them into Dumpsters.

“There’s not an official cause of death,” said Ashley Stokes, a marine mammal rescue coordinator for the Seacoast Science Center in Rye. "Believe it or not, when we got in there, there was nothing definitively that pointed to why she died. Not surprisingly the majority of her inner organs were rotten because it has been so hot the the last few days.”

The normal lifespan for a female humpback whale is 45 to 50 years. Biologists said this whale, named Snow Plow, was around 18 years old, having first been seen as a calf in the Gulf of Maine in 1998. Snow Plow's mother, Fern, is still alive and was recently spotted by whale watchers in the gulf.

“A lot of her organs weren't really of much scientific value,” said Stokes. “But New England Aquarium did sample what they could so they could take histology and pathology to see if there were any viral infections going on her body or if she had any sort of terminal illness.”

Stokes said they did well to remove most of the flesh from the skeletal remains and surprisingly only had to fill three out of four Dumpsters. Each of these Dumpsters could hold about 10 tons. The remains were trucked away immediately to avoid smell and will be turned into compost at an undisclosed location.

The Dumpsters did not include skeletal remains, as bones were loaded into a Massachusetts Wildlife and Fisheres trailor supervised by endangered species biologist Tom French. French will take the skeleton and bury it, allowing it to decompose naturally for up to two years. After that it will be donated for educational purposes.

Stokes said many people are asking her what will happen to the whale's tail. Unfortunately, the tail, called the fluke, is made entirely out of cartilage, and is therefore non-preservable. When Snow Plow’s skeleton is assembled, a replica of the whale's fluke will be attached.

However, scientists were excited to recover both of the whale's ear plugs, which are essentially wax build-up in humpback whales. The plugs will go to the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they can be genetically tested and used to help determine Snow Plow's exact age.

“It was a long day, but all is not lost which is great,” said Stokes. “Certainly, her skeleton will be used as much as it can be for education. We were able to more importantly get rid of the animal before the Fourth of July weekend as well.”

Weddings in Rye State Park are scheduled for this weekend and although the whale is gone, some of the smell is still lingering. Stokes said NHDOT crews are spreading lime to combat bacteria and odor. Members of the Rye Fire Department were also seen early in the morning hosing down equipment and the beach.

Stokes said the preservation of Snow Plow took a cooperative effort.

“Not only between the nonprofits, but also state officials, federal officials, town officials and state park officials. It was such a huge collaboration in a short amount of time," Stokes said. "Everybody came to work together to get the job done.

“It’s hard to say if we’ll ever know the cause of death, but we tried. Pathology usually takes a while, so the New England Aquarium will send the sample out to an outside lab, so we’ll see.”

Stokes said now it is a matter of waiting for the results to come in.

The stretch of Ocean Boulevard that had been a chaos of cars since Monday, returned to relative quiet with the whale's removal.

Stokes thanked the public for being so patient and receptive to the long, arduous process of dealing with the whale.

“Many people brought down little bouquets of flowers and heart-shaped rocks,” Stokes said. “Rye Public Library even put a sign out on their board. So as a whole the people have been wonderful to deal with.”