SEQUIM — Harbor porpoises are a common sight, said Dungeness resident Lee Bowen, looking out onto the Strait of Juan de Fuca from his 3 Crabs Road home.
However, finding a beached, live porpoise is not common. Bowen, who has lived in the area for 17 years, spotted the animal while walking along the shoreline on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 12.
“It was alive, so my first impulse was to put it back in the water,” Bowen said. “But I realized you shouldn’t touch marine wildlife.”
So he turned to friend Bob Boekelheide, retired director of the Dungeness River Center, who contacted the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network (866-767-6114) and then the Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles, where he was connected with its facilities director, Tamara Galvan.
Galvan confirmed that finding a live harbor porpoise on a beach is unusual despite the species being common in Clallam County’s sea waters.
Bowen said Galvan and a veterinarian assessed the porpoise and put wet towels on it to minimize suffering.
Ultimately, the poor condition of the porpoise led the vet to euthanize it, Galvan said.
What caused the porpoise to come ashore won’t be known until after a necropsy, Galvan said, but she suspects it may be a parasite or disease causing it to be malnourished.
When harbor porpoises are found beached, it is more common in the summer, she said, and deceased harbor seals are most often reported.
She said about half of harbor seal pups don’t make it through their first season, and the weaning period is the hardest time as they have to learn to hunt on their own.
Claw marks were found on the porpoise, Bowen said. Galvan said they were likely from an eagle.
Representatives with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries advise people stay at least 100 yards away from stranded marine mammals, to keep dogs the same distance away, and to not touch the animal.
Some diseases can pass between marine animals and dogs, Galvan said, and some seal pups need to rest on the shore and need space.
For more information, visit fisheries.noaa.gov.
Feiro staff and volunteer respond to calls to the Stranding Network from Clallam Bay to west Sequim while the Port Townsend Marine Science Center covers eastern Sequim to Jefferson County.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
