OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The carcass of a humpback whale washed ashore at Ruby Beach last week, killed by what experts believe to be a collision with a large vessel.
The whale — a young female, likely a weaned calf or yearling — was reported to staff at Olympic National Park (ONP) after being spotted on Oct. 5, according to Jessie Huggins, stranding coordinator with Cascadia Research, an Olympia-based nonprofit group that’s part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
ONP spokesperson Meagan Huff said that when a whale or other marine mammal carcass washes ashore within the park, the policy is to contact partners within the stranding network.
Huggins and her team said they examined the carcass last Saturday and found the body to be in a state of moderate post-mortem decomposition. The team conducted a necropsy — an examination to determine cause of death — and found that the whale had suffered from blunt force trauma.
“Usually, that is due to collision with a large vessel,” Huggins said. “We didn’t see any signs of killer whale involvement, which can also be a source of blunt force trauma.”
Huggins and her team took samples from the portions of the whale that were not too decomposed for study, she said.
Because of the location of the whale, the carcass likely will be left to decompose on its own, Huggins said. Sometimes carcasses are dragged back out to sea or buried with sand, but due to the remoteness of Ruby Beach, those options are more difficult.
Huggins noted that, under federal law, it is illegal to remove marine mammal parts without a research permit.
The humpback at Ruby Beach is the second whale carcass Cascadia was called to examine in the region last week.
According to a release from the organization, researchers were examining the carcass of a minke whale that had been floating in the San Juan islands for several days on Oct. 5, the day the humpback whale was first spotted.
“Ship strikes have been an increasing cause of death of large whales in Washington, especially since the early 2000s,” Cascadia said, noting it was difficult to know the true number of ship strikes.
“Most whales killed by ship strikes are not observed, and carcasses often sink and do not wash up to be examined like the two in the past week.”
Stranded or dead marine mammals on the shore can be reported to the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network hotline at 866-767-6114.
________
Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at psegall@soundpublishing.com.
