Horror as dead 50-foot whale is drifs through Boston Harbor with 'unusual' wounds

By Nina Golgowski

8 October 2012

The sight of a dead 50-foot finback whale drifting through Boston Harbor with open wounds and bruises left onlookers horrified and officials baffled by what’s believed to have been an unusual cause of death.

While seen entering the harbor around 3am on Sunday, Petty Officer Robert Simpson said the 80,000lb floating carcass was examined by the Coast Guard and a team from the New England Aquarium but its cause of death wasn’t immediately known.

With visible blood, bruising and pressure lines, Aquarium spokesman Tony said that its most obvious injuries could be caused by something wrapping around the whale.

Mysterious find: Boaters watch as a dead 50-foot finback whale floats in the Boston Harbor, near Deer Island, on Sunday morning

Brutal injuries: The 80,000lb whale, believed dead for three days, could be seen with obvious injuries to its body though its cause of death has yet to be determined

Total shock: Joey Brancato, a local fisherman who took this picture, said he approached the body thinking it was a capsized boat but was quickly horrified by what he found instead

Unusual path: The whale’s body travelled past Deer Island, pictured top right, where it was easily filmed by shocked fisherman before beaching on Long Island, bottom right, all east of downtown

Others: Finback whales are the second-longest whale in the world behind the blue whale and can get up to about 70 feet and weigh up to 70 tons

‘Seeing blood is significant, a lot of times in most whale deaths you won’t see blood,’ Mr Lacasse told NECN.

Joey Brancato, a local fisherman, said the scene was extremely unnerving as he filmed it floating off Dear Island around noon on Sunday.

Before its beaching officials told NECN that where it washed ashore would make it the landowner’s responsibility to get rid of.

Long Island today is mostly used for social service programs including a homeless center and various recovery programmes.

A necropsy is now planned on the whale to determine its cause of death.

The finback is the second-longest whale in the world behind the blue whale.

It can reach about 70 feet and weigh up to 70 tons.

Experts believe the whale had been dead for about three days before found.

Watch the video here:

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