A 40-foot sperm whale was found dead along the Oregon coast Saturday after its body washed ashore on a beach at Fort Stevens State Park, officials said.
The whale was found near the shipwreck of the park’s flagship, Peter Iredale, and belongs to an endangered species of marine mammal, Seaside Aquarium said in a Facebook post shared Sunday. The aquarium also shared a short video on its social media page of the beached sperm whale after it was discovered.
There were several “large wounds” found on the whale’s body that are partially visible in the video and may have been the result of a collision with a vessel, according to the aquarium.
“[H]However, it is unclear whether this impact occurred before or after death,” the aquarium said in its Facebook post. “An autopsy will be scheduled later in the week to take a closer look.”
Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could perform the autopsy as soon as Monday afternoon, Michael Milstein, a spokesman for the agency, told CBS News in an email. Milstein said the research could reveal more details about the whale’s death and what caused it.
A 40-foot sperm whale washed ashore just south of Peter Iredale in Fort Steven State Park yesterday afternoon. The whale was dead for some time before it washed ashore. There were several large wounds on the whale, believed to be from a collision with a large vessel, but it is unclear whether this impact occurred before or after death. An autopsy will be scheduled later in the week to take a closer look at this. Today, with the help of the wonderful staff at the state parks, we were able to remove the mandible. The jaw was removed so that the teeth remained intact for scientific purposes. This whale is believed to be a young male. Male sperm whales can reach nearly 60 feet and weigh over 40 tons. They are known to live up to 60 years, with males reaching maturity around age 50 at approximately 52 feet in length. They feed on deep-sea species such as squid, sharks, skates and fish. While their population is recovering, sperm whales are still considered endangered. Please remember to look, but don’t touch. Any whale, dolphin, porpoise or pinniped can spread potential diseases to humans and pets.
Posted by Seaside Aquarium on Sunday, January 15, 2023
The aquarium’s post noted that Fort Stevens State Park staff removed the lower jaw of the sperm whale “so that the teeth would remain intact for scientific purposes,” adding that the whale was “believed to be a young male.” Milstein told CBS News on Monday that a 40-foot sperm whale is “about the typical size” for an adult male.
Sperm whales are the largest toothed whales on Earth, according to NOAA, with males sometimes reaching nearly 60 feet in length and weighing more than 40 tons. They usually feed on deep-water marine species such as squid, sharks and other fish, and can live up to 60 years. The population of sperm whales found off the U.S. West Coast is estimated at about 2,000, Milstein said, but “they’re less common this far north in the winter.”
“So having a sperm whale at this time of year is somewhat unusual, but we’ve had sperm whales in the winter before,” Milstein explained, adding, “Sperm whales are the third most common species of whale stranding in Oregon, after gray and humpback whales “.
Although the exact size of the current global population of sperm whales is unknown, estimates suggest there may be between 200,000 and 1 1/2 million of them inhabiting oceans worldwide, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said. The whales are listed as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, after nearly two centuries of commercial whaling practices that “significantly reduced sperm whale populations worldwide,” according to NOAA Fisheries.
The government agency notes that the sperm whale population is “probably increasing” since a moratorium on commercial fishing was imposed in 1986, but is also “still recovering” as a species whose survival remains under threat for a number of reasons. According to NOAA Fisheries, which leads sperm whale conservation efforts, the species is vulnerable to ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, underwater noise pollution that can interfere with their ability to communicate, marine debris, oil spills and other pollutants, as well as various consequences of climate change.
There are few documented incidents of a marine vessel fatally striking a sperm whale, according to NOAA. However, from 2010 to 2014, the agency reported that 37 whales were injured by ship strikes along North America’s Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, with similar estimates along the Pacific coast. NOAA called those reports “minimum estimates” that are “likely to be low because the number of deaths and serious injuries that remain unreported is unknown.” Additional studies show that offshore vessels pose a significant threat to whales and other marine life, with one published in 2017 suggesting that around 80 blue, fin and humpback whales are struck along the US West Coast each year.
A number of whales, including some of the endangered species, have been killed or injured recently in US waters. Earlier this month, a 4-year-old North Atlantic right whale — one of the rarest in the world, with only a few hundred left — was first spotted Jan. 8 by an aerial survey team from Florida’s Clearwater Marine Aquarium heavily entangled in fishing gear. The whale was seen again about 20 miles east of Rodante, North Carolina, with “several coils of fishing line around the mouth and tail” and more fibers trailing behind it, NOAA said. The animal was “likely to die” after the entangled fishing line left it with “multiple wounds on its body and whale lice on its head,” the agency said.
Around the same time, a 21-foot killer whale was found stranded and later died after washing ashore near Daytona Beach, Florida, while another 32-foot whale washed ashore in Brigantine, New Jersey, after officials said , that he was most likely struck and killed by a naval vessel, CBS Philadelphia reported. Earlier in mid-December, a humpback whale named Moon — widely known and loved by researchers who have studied her — was left with a broken spine and unable to use her tail after being struck by a ship while swimming from Canada to Hawaii. Experts said they believed the trip would be Moon’s “last trip” before her death.
Add Comment