Monday, April 27, 2009

A whale of a tale...

We came into the nature center this morning to many phone calls letting us know there was a dead whale on the beach, just to the north of the Inn. We were sad to hear the news but excited to be able to see such an incredible creature up close! We expected to find a Right Whale, who calve off the coasts of Florida and Georgia from December to March. But, a look at the long white pectoral fin revealed that it was a Humpback whale, and size revealed it was a juvenile.It was actually laying on it's back, so this photo is the underneath of its mouth.

Florida Fish and Wildlife has a marine mammal stranding number, which should be called as soon as any distressed or dead ones are found. They had been notified in the early morning, but we called them back to warn them that it was about to be taken away by the tide. Luckily they got there in time to put a rope around it's fluke (tail), but it took a bunch of people holding the rope to hold onto the whale, which weighed about 10-20 tons!

Luckily we were able to hang onto it until we could get it attached to a wench on the front of the FWC truck, which was able to hold it until the tide retreated. Then, a backhoe was brought it to drag the whale up the beach to the front of the dunes. People from NOAA, FWC, Marine Mammal Stranding Team (from Volusia county), Marineland and the Jacksonville zoo were led by the University of Florida's Aquatic Animal Health veterinarian and vet students in performing and in-depth necropsy of the whale. Most had not seen a humpback whale before, it's pretty rare for large whales to wash up on our beaches.




The team first took measurements and photos of the whale, it was 814 cm long (26.7 feet) and they estimated it to be about five years old. Humpback whales reach their mature length of 53 feet or more around age 12. They then performed the necropsy by taking the whale apart, piece by piece, noting any abnormality and taking tissue samples for further study back at the lab. Afterwards, the carcass was buried on the beach. It was gross but fascinating to watch the whole thing! All of my photos can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37828474@N03/sets/72157617320198921/ Warning: some are pretty graphic and may gross you out!


The whale had been dead for a couple of days, and they could not determine a cause of death at the time, but as soon as they find anything out, we will post it on the blog! Even if they aren't able to figure out what happened, they will gain knowledge from this whale, and eventually (after they stop stinking, hopefully!) we will have some of the bones on display at the nature center for everyone to see and learn from.


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