ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The necropsy has been completed on a 50-foot endangered fin whale discovered Sunday on a cruise ship’s bow entering an Alaska port.
A cause of death for the animal was not immediately announced.
“It’s under investigation,” said Julie Speegle, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmosphere.
The whale was spotted just after 5 a.m. on the bulbous bow of the Zaandam, a Holland America Line ship, as it prepared to dock. Spokeswoman Sally Andrews in an email said an officer preparing the ship for arrival after 4:30 a.m. had not seen the whale.
The company has a program to avoid collisions by reducing speed or altering course, Andrews said.
Fin whales feed on schooling fish and invertebrates. The average adult male fin whale is 70 feet long and weighs 45 tons. The whale carried by the Zaandam was a juvenile male.
The carcass was towed to a beach for the necropsy. A private Alaska veterinary pathologist working with NOAA Fisheries, Kathy Burek Huntington, was the lead pathologist.
“This whale was a very fresh, young fin whale, which gave us an amazing opportunity to conduct a full necropsy and obtain the full spectrum of samples,” Huntington said in a statement provided by Speegle.
Researchers took samples to look at the whale’s current and historical diet, genetics, contaminants and pre-existing conditions. Ear plugs will allow a determination of age.
“These necropsies don’t just find COD (cause of death), but help answer a host of questions about these endangered species,” Huntington said.
The whale was carried on the ship’s bulbous bow, an underwater extension of the main bow that is designed to avoid making waves.
NOAA Fisheries has three options for disposing of the carcass, Speegle said. It would be too costly to tow to open water. The agency could “let nature take its course” and leave the carcass to scavengers or bury the carcass on the beach to dig up the bones later for display, Speegle said.
