While very rare, whale sightings on the MS Coast have caused a stir for a century
The discovery of a dead whale washed up on the beach in Pass Christian over the weekend is one of a few whale strandings and rescues over the last decade in South Mississippi.
The Sun Herald archives contain photos and articles about whales on the Coast — some that were found alive and rehabilitated.
The most notable is a 1923 story “that got Hollywood cameras rolling over a whale of a Mississippi Coast story,” according to Sun Herald reporter and historian Kat Bergeron. People paid 25 cents to get a look at the whale after it was towed into the Biloxi Harbor.
A caption that ran with a photograph of the dead whale floating alongside a trawler in 1923 said: “This 75-ton whale, towed into harbor at Biloxi, Miss., was the subject of one of the most unusual cases in American legal history. T.J. Desporte brought the whale into port for exhibition after tourists had sighted it.”
Rejelo Lopez of New Orleans claimed he saw the whale first. U.S. Marshall J.C. Tyler offered the whale for sale to the highest bidder for the whale’s ivory and lamp oil, but the two parties claiming ownership reached an agreement before the whale was auctioned.
“The whale is the first ever exhibited on the Gulf of Mexico,” the article said.
Sightings also exist in 1877, 1896, 1899 with the the harpooning of one off Ship Island, 1914, 1923 and 1967, among other dates. The Gulf of Mexico has 25 known whale and dolphin species, but the shallow Mississippi Sound isn’t conducive to visits.
Here are reports of other whale sightings on the Gulf Coast from the pages of the Sun Herald:
▪ September 2019 — A young melon-head whale between two and four years old continued to improve at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport after being rescued from death on the north shore of Cat Island.
The rare rescue, only the second of a 40-year career for IMMS director Moby Solangi, and the first live rescue since the Mississippi Sound lost over 100 marine mammals, mostly dolphins, to the fresh-water incursion caused by the Bonnet Carre Spillway opening.
▪ July 2016 — Two male pygmy killer whales found almost dead off Waveland in the Mississippi Sound were released into the Gulf after their nine-month revival at IMMS. Solangi said the whales, which are actually a species of dolphin, were in critical condition when they were found and are among the only known cases of pygmy killer whales surviving in captivity.
▪ 1967 — Capt. Pete Skrmetta, a second-generation immigrant, was running a ferry to Ship Island when twice on April 7 he spotted the big whale spouting about 300 feet from the opening of the Gulfport Small Craft Harbor.
“He never knew why it died — from injuries on the rocks or an illness —but next he saw it beached on Ship about 3 miles from historic Fort Massachusetts,” Bergeron wrote.
Using the Pan American Clipper and a barge, he managed to tie the dead whale near the fort and the excursion business boomed for the next four days as locals rode the ferry for a look.
This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 1:48 PM.
