Eight dead whales have washed ashore in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the past two months.
They cover four different species, including the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale.
The local deaths are in line with worrying coastal trends since 2017.
Federal scientists suspect human interactions with whales are to blame, including vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stressed that there is no evidence that the whale deaths are related to the offshore wind industry.
Officials have not completed investigations into many of the deaths in our area. But this is what the World Health Organization now knows.
virginia beach
On March 3, a juvenile male humpback whale was spotted floating near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and later washed ashore near 25th Street on the waterfront. It is 32 feet long and weighs about 32,000 pounds, according to the Virginia Aquarium.
The next day, another juvenile male humpback whale, about 27 feet long and weighing 21,800 pounds, was trapped at False Point State Park.
Virginia Beach Aquarium officials performed samples and necropsies on the two humpback whales but have not determined the cause of death. Spokeswoman Christina Scott said they send tissue samples to an outside lab, which can delay the entire process.
Scott said both whales had some unusual skin lesions and healed scars that showed they had been entangled in fishing gear before.
She said entangled scars are an important reminder that we share the ocean and that our activities can impact the marine environment and its inhabitants.
On March 30, a company conducting mid-Atlantic whale surveys for the Navy spotted an endangered North Atlantic right whale floating about 50 miles east of the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
It was identified as the female first sighted in 1989, a mother who had recently given birth to her sixth calf, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Officials towed the whale to shore for a necropsy, but weather conditions and the fact that the carcass had been eaten by sharks made it difficult.
Officials assess an endangered North Atlantic right whale in Virginia Beach.
Days later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said preliminary findings showed the whale had suffered catastrophic injuries to its spine consistent with blunt force trauma from a boat strike before its death.
The agency’s Office of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident.
North Atlantic right whale found dead in Virginia Beach with broken vertebrae in its back.
North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered, with only about 350 right whales left, of which less than 70 are actively breeding females.
This makes the loss of fertile females particularly devastating to humans, NOAA said. Officials do not believe the calf, which has not yet been found, will survive without its mother.
East Coast
On March 16, a dead female minke whale stranded on Wallops Island in Accomack County.
The Virginia Aquarium responded and is still evaluating the case, Scott said. Tissue samples were sent to an off-site laboratory.
Outer Banks
On March 5, a 26-foot-long female minke whale washed up on a 4WD beach north of Corolla.
Because the whale was too large to move, a team of local scientists performed a necropsy on the beach, according to the Center for Marine Science and Technology at North Carolina State University.
CMAST said immediate results showed no evidence that it died from man-made causes, such as a ship strike. The whale showed signs of bacterial infection, but more research and testing is needed before officials can determine an official cause of death.
In the current deaths, infectious diseases are listed as a threat to the mink.
A female minke whale on Corolla Beach in early March.
On March 8, two dwarf sperm whales were found dead on the Outer Banks, believed to be a sperm whale mother and her calf.
The female washed up in Nags Head and was found pregnant, with the two-foot-long fetus intact. A male baby sperm whale washed up alive a few miles south of Janet’s Landing, but died soon after.
It’s unclear what killed the sperm whale. Officials suspect the offspring were too young to survive on their own, The Virginian-Pilot reported.
Most recently, on April 13, a live humpback whale was spotted about 150 yards off the coast of Rodanthe, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in North Carolina. Local fishermen found it tangled in fishing gear.
Days later, the 31-foot-tall juvenile female was trapped in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge with gears wrapped around her mouth and pectoral fins.
Due to the presence of the fishing gear, NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is investigating.
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Image Source : whro.org