Dead beached pygmy sperm whale returns to Bald Head Island, North Carolina

By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Monday, December 10, 2012

A beached whale pushed back out to sea Sunday afternoon died sometime during the night and floated back onto Bald Head Island‘s eastern shore this morning, officials said.

“It has washed back on the beach late this morning, around 11,” said Village Manager Calvin Peck. “The North Carolina Marine Mammal Stranding Team is working on a plan to return the body to their lab for a necropsy.”

A dead whale believed to be a pygmy sperm whale washed back up on Bald Head Island on Monday morning. Photo courtesy of Bald Head Island Conservancy

The whale – believed to be a female pygmy sperm whale, between 10 and 15 feet long – first washed up on East Beach around 11 a.m. Sunday, according to Suzanne Dorsey, executive director of the Bald Head Island Conservancy.

“We started our wildlife protocol, which is to contact the standing team,” Dorsey said. “We dispatched some folks out to the island and started organizing getting the stranding team out here.”

While officials awaited the arrival of the team, a handful of Bald Head Island residents decided to band together and push the whale back out to sea, a well-meaning but ultimately incorrect course of action. As a federally protected species, it’s illegal to come within 1,500 feet of certain species of whales.

“Their intention was in no way bad, and they didn’t know the stranding team was en route,” Dorsey said. “But it died while they were pushing it back into the water, and doing that prevented us from getting the stranding team there.

“That team has a vet and the vet could have hopefully helped it, and if nothing else could have euthanized the whale, stopped its suffering and determined the cause of death.”

Conservancy staff waited for the whale to wash back on shore and early this morning alerted members of the stranding team, who are on-site.

starnewsonline.com

Fair Use: Educational