Whale spotted near MDI before dying off Cape Elizabeth

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 2 minutes read

The 40-foot-long humpback whale that was found dead off Cape Elizabeth this week appears to have spent its last two weeks near Maine.

Federal authorities still have not released the results of a pending autopsy of the female whale, which had fishing gear wrapped around its tail when it was transported to Portland on Thursday and removed from the water.

But the whale, known to researchers as “Chunk,” was spotted about two weeks ago off the coast of Mount Desert Island, according to Lindsey Jones, director of photo-identification for Allied Whale, a laboratory of marine mammals based at the College of the Atlantic. . Jones said a Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. researcher spotted Chunk during a May 25 cruise.

“It’s always difficult to learn that an animal you know and have seen before has died, especially in painful circumstances like an entanglement,” Jones said.

Although Allied Whale responds to whale strandings, it only does so as far south as Rockland. He is not involved in the necropsy of the whale discovered this week and Jones was unable to discuss the circumstances of its death.

This whale was first reported to authorities as alive and encased in a net off Cape Elizabeth on Wednesday, but it was dead by the time the Maine Marine Patrol reached it, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Marine Patrol then towed it to shore Thursday, and it was loaded onto an excavation trailer and taken to a location inland for necropsy and disposal.

Marine Mammals of Maine is supervising the necropsy.

In the North Atlantic Ocean, humpback whales are one of three large whale species that have experienced an unusual number of deaths, injuries and illnesses in recent years. The other two are mink and North Atlantic right whales.

The situation is particularly dire for right whales, which are endangered and estimated to have fewer than 70 active breeding females remaining out of a remaining population of 360, according to NOAA.

Most of these deaths are caused by fishing accidents or ship strikes. Stricter regulations for Maine's lobster industry, intended to limit entanglements with right whales, are now on hold after Congress delayed them until 2028.

But Maine lobster fishing gear was found on a dead right whale found on Martha's Vineyard in January, and the fishing industry could face more pressure if linked to additional deaths.

Jones urged anyone who spots a dead whale to report it to authorities so research can be done into the causes.

“It’s concerning every time we get a new case of a large whale that has experienced a mortality event,” Jones said.