Image of the dead sei whale being necropsied
A whale was spotted off Lobster Cove at Smith Point on Friday afternoon, but as of last night was still caught on some rocks and had not washed ashore, authorities said. The whale has been dead since at least Wednesday. Police said yesterday it was seen about 30 yards offshore Friday at 1:35 p.m. and was reported to Harbor master and Police Chief Ronald Ramos. The New England Aquarium took tissue samples of the whale Wednesday while it was at the mouth of Boston Harbor in deeper water. “As of Saturday night, the whale was off Rocky Point in Manchester and not in a spot where it was easily retrievable,” said Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the aquarium. “It had been dead for several days.” Martin Harris, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Gloucester, said the aquarium would take responsibility for handling the whale. LaCasse said the aquarium is not certain about the species of the whale, “but we believe it to be a sei whale,” he said. The whale is estimated to be between 40 and 45 feet long. Sei whales are pelagic animals, meaning they swim above the ocean floor, tend to live far offshore and grow to between 40 feet and 50 feet, according to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Federal law makes the town where a whale washes up responsible for its removal. As of yesterday evening, the whale was caught on some rocks. If it stays there, Manchester will have to remove it. If it washes away, “it’s basically at the whim of the currents and the whim of nature,” LaCasse said. As results from the tissue samples could take several weeks, LaCasse said they do not know a cause of death. There is lobster gear caught on the whale, but he said they are sure it picked the gear up after its death. Federal observers recently spotted a large group of sei whales feeding about 60 miles east of Cape Cod, LaCasse said. A young humpback whale was killed by a ship strike and washed up on Cape Hedge Beach in Rockport May 15. The aquarium removed the bones from the whale and the Rockport Department of Public Works buried the remainder behind the parking lot at Cape Hedge Beach. Rockport spent about $2,000 removing and burying the whale, according to Rockport Public Works Director John Tomasz. The humpback was removed and buried within a day.