Dead Baby Gray Whale washes up on coast, Ore.
By Bob Heye, KATU News
Apr 18, 2010
“This 4 month old baby whale was in bad shape when its body washed up,” said a marine expert. “The question now is how did it die – and is it part of a larger trend?”
PACIFIC BEACH, Wash. (AP) – A gray whale has beached and died near Pacific Beach in Washington’s Grays Harbor County. The cause of death has not been determined but the top order of business is getting the carcass buried, quickly.
KOMO-TV says Dana Cross was one of the first to spot the whale when it showed up Tuesday, barely alive.
Now KOMO says the state has hired Steve Rockey to bury the giant creature. Rockey says the whale will be buried under about six feet of sand _ and no one will be able to spot the place once he’s done.
He’s working quickly because the beach is due to be filled with clam diggers on Thursday.
by Susan Wyatt
NWCN.com
Posted on April 18, 2010
GEARHART, Ore. – A scientist says a baby whale that washed up on a northeast Oregon beach died from entanglement with crab pot lines.
KATU reports that a necropsy was completed Sunday by Portland State University staff and students.
Dr. Debbie Duffield, head of marine biology at the university, says the whale also showed evidence it was still of nursing age.
The baby whale washed up dead on Clatsop Beach north of Gearhart Friday.
Keith Chandler with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network says the baby whale was already in bad shape when washed up. He says a rope was stringing from its mouth.
Experts say the death isn’t connected to the deaths of five other gray whales in Washington.
By Bob Heye, KATU News and KATU.com Staff
Apr 18, 2010
GEARHART, Ore. – The body of a 4-month-old Gray Whale is attracting the attention of quite a few curious sightseers on the Oregon Coast.
The whale was already dead when it washed up on the Clatsop Beach north of Gearhart late Friday afternoon.
“It appears this baby whale was already in bad shape when its body washed up,” said Keith Chandler with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, at the scene Saturday. “…You can see a rope stringing from the whale’s mouth. The question now is how did it die – and is it part of a larger trend?”
Just getting out to see the whale in the rain and wind wasn’t easy. Still, plenty of beach combers came by to see the remains of this 27-foot Gray Whale.
“It’s big,” said one onlooker. “I’ve never seen a whale … in person!”
“It’s weird to see them in the central part of the beach,” said another onlooker. “It’s usually the cove area, around Seaside, where I’ve seen more of them washed up.”
This one washed ashore around 4 p.m. Friday. The rope wrapped through the whale’s mouth came from a crab pot, but it was originally unclear if that had anything to do with how the baby whale died.
“We don’t know if it got tangled up in it after it died, or if it’s the cause of death,” Chandler said Saturday. “That’s something that the Marine Mammal Stranding Network team will find out.”
On Sunday a marine biology class from Portland State University took to the beach to help perform a necropsy, which is essentially an animal autopsy. Thirty-eight people in all participated, according to a KATU contributor on the scene.
The head of marine biology at PSU, Dr. Debbie Duffield, now reports the whale died from entanglement with crab pot lines. Duffield also said the whale “showed evidence” of being the age where it would still be nursing.
Experts also said this incident is not connected to a recent rash of five Gray Whales found washed up on the beach in Washington and the Puget Sound. Those whales were older – and some were undernourished.
Still, scientists believe it’s important to understand how this small whale died – to make sure there’s no widespread threat to whales migrating along the Pacific Northwest coast. The necropsy confirmed that what killed this mammal was likely childhood curiosity.
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