Baby minke dies inTurville Creek, New Jersey

Baby minke stranded in Turville Creek transported to Smithsonian

NANCY POWELL ¦ Staff Writer

March 2, 1012

A whale calf separated from its mother was taken from Turville Creek to the Smithsonian last Friday.

A nearby resident spotted the whale on a mud flat in the creek near Route 589 as he was walking his dog in the waterfront trailer park at about 5:15 p.m. Thursday.

A baby minke whale was found stranded on a mud flat in Turville Creek last Thursday. The marine mammal was towed to the Turville Creek’s public boat ramp, where it was euthanized by a veterinarian. The remains, shown above on the forklift at the Gum Point Road boat ramp, were transported to a necropsy facility at the Smithsonian Museum. PHOTOS COURTESY ERIC SEXTON

“I looked in that direction,” Eric Sexton said. “The tide was down and something drew me to it. I saw the tail move and I thought it was a porpoise or a whale.”

Sexton contacted a friend at the Department of Natural Resources and arrangements were made to tow the whale to Turville Creek’s public boat ramp. A fireboat was used to tow the marine mammal and fire apparatus from the Berlin and the Ocean Pines volunteer fire company provided light as it was secured to the dock with cargo netting at about 8 p.m.

“It’s not often you see a whale in Turville Creek,” said Charlotte Powell, who lives next door to the boat ramp property, and was one of several people watching as the whale was attached to the dock.

The young whale was a minke, the second smallest baleen whale. Fully-grown whales measure about 35 feet. Calves measure 7.2 feet to 9.2 feet at birth. The calf in the creek measured 11.5 feet long.

“Somehow it got itself into a couple feet of water,” said Dave Quilter, a member of the Marine Animal Rescue Program, an organization that rescues stranded whales, seals, turtles and other sea creatures.

Because the calf was so young, less than a year old, its “chance of survival is zero on its own,” Quilter said shortly after the small whale was secured. The final determination, however, was made by a veterinarian from the National Aquarium in Baltimore, who agreed with Quilter and euthanized the whale at approximately 12:30 a.m.

After onlookers dispersed, Jennifer Dittmar, the aquar- ium’s stranding coordinator for the Marine Animal Rescue Program and another aquarium representative, remained with the whale’s carcass throughout the night and into Friday morning.

A forklift from the Worcester County Department of Public Works was used to hoist …

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