How did endangered whale found on MS Coast beach die? What happens to the massive carcass?

A team of about 30 people gathered on a Mississippi Coast beach Sunday to perform a necropsy on an endangered baleen whale discovered dead and stranded west of the Pass Christian Harbor the day before.

Scientists first believed the mammal was a rare Rice’s whale, but further examination of the beached carcass revealed it was a fin whale species, Institute for Marine and Mammal Studies Director Moby Solangi told the Sun Herald.

The whale was 35 feet long and weighed approximately 12,000 pounds.

Fin whales are typically found in deep, offshore waters primarily in temperate and polar areas. They are less commonly found in the tropics, making strandings a rarity along the Gulf Coast.

This is only the fourth fin whale stranding in the Gulf of Mexico since 2002, and the first stranding that has been reported in Mississippi. Two of the previous three were found in Texas, and the third was found in Gulf County, Florida.

How did the young whale die?

The juvenile whale carcass sat on the beach for two days and was guarded overnight until scientists from across the Gulf South region could perform the necropsy.

“We had a team from various states that came in to help out with different expertise,” Solangi said, including representatives from from the Florida Wildlife Commission, Gulf World, Dolphin Island Sea Lab, NOAA, Mississippi State University and College of Veterinary Medicine, and IMMS. The necropsy team was led by Denise Boyd, a member of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Solangi said an initial inspection showed no human interaction led to the whale’s death, “meaning nothing happened where there was an entanglement or a boat hit it, or something like that.”

The full necropsy will be able to provide more insight as to how the whale died, Solangi said.

More studies and genetic analyses are going to be done on the whale based on the data that has been collected.

“A lot of samples were taken for pathology, toxicology, genetics, and other stuff, so usually those things take about 3-4 weeks,” Solangi said. “Samples are sent to different specialized labs and NOAA makes sure it goes to the places that have the right experience and background data.”

Solangi told the Sun Herald that the mammal’s presence in shallow water may indicate that it was sick.

“This is a baleen whale, and it’s very hard for it to get to this part,” Solangi said. “These live in deep waters about 100 miles away. If it had died in deeper water, it would have sunk, and it would have been eaten up by sharks… So the animal was probably sick. When animals get sick, they seek shallow water so that they can breathe and stay away from predators.”

What happened to the whale’s body?

The whale’s body was removed from the Pass Christian beach Monday after the necropsy was performed. The carcass was dumped at an area landfill.

The whale’s head was removed from its body and the skull and will be cleaned and placed on display at IMMS, Solangi said.

Solangi said the beach where the whale washed ashore was disinfected and is safe to the public.

Why are fin whales endangered?

The fin whale is the second largest whale species on earth after the blue whale and is found in oceans across the globe. It is named after its easily spotted fin on its back, near the tail. Fin whales can reach lengths of 75–85 feet and live up to 90 years.

Along with all other marine mammals, the fin whale is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It is also listed as depleted under this act since it is below its optimum sustainable population. It is estimated that around 6,802 fin whales are left in the North Atlantic

Aside from natural causes, some of the most significant threats to this endangered marine mammal listed by NOAA include climate change, contaminants, vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.

This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 3:44 PM.