A 12-foot deceased minke whale was towed out to sea last Friday from a private property on Katama Bay between Edgartown and Chappaquiddick.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which facilitates a network of stranding response organizations across the country, received reports of the deceased whale found under a private dock on Thursday, August 20.
There was no necropsy performed, which means there isn’t an official cause of death. The minke whale is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act but isn’t considered endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Since January 2017, however, there’s been an elevated number of minke whale mortalities between Maine and Georgia, which NOAA declared an unusual mortality event (UME). A UME is “a stranding that is unexpected; involves a significant die-off of any marine mammal population; and demands immediate response,” according to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Massachusetts leads East Coast states with 73 strandings out of 212 in the past decade.
A necropsy was performed on more than 60 percent of minke whales found since 2017, and some initial findings showed evidence of human interactions — ship strikes and gear entanglements — or infectious diseases as causes of death, but that wasn’t the case for all of the whales.
Disposal of the carcass was coordinated between the homeowner and the Edgartown Shellfish Department on Friday, August 28, Andrea Gomez, communications specialist and public affairs officer for NOAA, said in an email to The Times. “Due to the whale’s state of decomposition and limited island resources, towing the whale out to sea for disposal was the best course of action,” she added.
Rob Morrison, shellfish constable for Edgartown, hadn’t personally ever towed a whale out to sea before, but he’s heard anecdotally that the town’s done that before. He estimated, based on the size, that the whale was a juvenile that died out in the Atlantic Ocean and came in through the breach between Chappaquiddick and Edgartown. Minke whales can grow up to 35 feet in length, according to NOAA, and this one was 12 feet, Gomez said.
The breach isn’t navigable for boats, however, and so Morrison said he, with the Edgartown Harbormaster’s department, brought the whale “really far out to sea,” away from ferry routes and past the Nantucket Sound, through Edgartown Harbor.
Morrison received permission from NOAA and the state Department of Environmental Protection to tow the whale and said that the level of decomposition didn’t pose a threat to vessels offshore. He said he was worried, from a public health perspective, about the dead whale in an area where people commercially fish and participate in recreational activities.
If you see a stranded, distressed, or dead marine mammal, contact a local stranding network partner, or call NOAA’s stranding hotline at 866-755-6622.
