‘Decomposed’ whale washes ashore in Maine amid ‘unusual’ species die-off, researchers say

A juvenile humpback whale washed ashore in Maine amid an “unusual” species die-off along the Atlantic coast, researchers say.

The young cetacean was found on the rocky coast of a small island in the Gulf of Maine on Nov. 1, according to the Marine Mammals of Maine, a federally authorized organization that assists with marine animal strandings.

The whale “was already fairly decomposed, significantly limiting the amount of viable samples we could collect to learn more about his life and death,” the organization stated in a Nov. 2 Facebook post.

Several environmental factors could have played a role in the creature’s death, Dr. Daniel Palacios, head of the Whale Habitat, Ecology & Telemetry Lab at Oregon State University, told McClatchy News.

One factor to consider is climate change, according to Palacios.

“The Gulf of Maine in particular is one place in the world where the rate of speed of climate change has just been extremely dramatic and the whole ecosystem has changed very strongly in just a matter of the last decade or two,” Palacios said.

The gulf, which is bordered by Cape Cod in the south and Nova Scotia in the north, is “warming at a faster rate than 99% of the world’s oceans,” according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

“So that is one specific factor to consider for the background of the mortality of this particular whale,” Palacios said.

Another component that could have played a role is human interaction, either via a ship strike or an entanglement, he said.

“Obviously in the Gulf of Maine area the lobster fisheries are a substantial source of concern for whales,” Palacios said.

‘Significant die-off’

The young humpback’s death, whatever the proximate cause may have been, is not an anomaly, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The species has experienced heightened mortalities along the Atlantic coast in recent years, leading officials to declare it an unusual mortality event, which “involves a significant die-off of any marine mammal population,” according to NOAA.

There have been 161 documented humpback strandings from Maine to Florida since 2016. Six have been reported so far this year on the East Coast, marking a decline from 33 reported strandings in 2020, according to NOAA. There were 10 strandings last year.

The North Atlantic Right Whale is also dying off in elevated numbers, partially due to entanglements and boat strikes, according to NOAA. There are estimated to be fewer than 370 remaining.

A female right whale was spotted dragging fishing gear off the coast of Massachusetts in September, leading experts to speculate that she would soon die, McClatchy News previously reported.

This story was originally published November 4, 2022 at 5:56 PM with the headline "‘Decomposed’ whale washes ashore in Maine amid ‘unusual’ species die-off, researchers say."