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The Whale Center of New England has now acquired a second whale skeleton for eventual display - that of a 17 foot minke whale found dead in Gloucester Harbor. We got our initial report of the whale from Joe Boreland of the Eastern Point Yacht Club in Gloucester on October 15, 2002. While returning from town on the Club's skiff, he noticed a floating object, which turned out to be the minke whale carcass. He called us, and we had Silver II, our research boat, on scene within 30 minutes.
Upon arrival, we were able to determine that the minke whale was a young animal, not fully grown. It was floating belly-up, and had sustained some damage from underwater scavengers (most likely crabs and lobsters) and surface scavengers (gulls). The whale was badly entangled in lobster gear, with line running through the mouth, through the baleen on its left side, and wrapped around the flipper twice. There was a lobster pot buoy next to the animal, and lobster line that ran below the carcass anchoring it in place.
A necropsy needed to be performed to determine whether the entanglement took place while the whale was still alive, or whether the carcass drifted into the gear after its death. Working with Joe and Jim Garron, one of our whale watch captains, we carefully cut the lines around the whale. Freeing the animal was difficult, because below the carcass there was a lot of gear, and there were several lines straining under the weight of the whale. However, we were eventually able to tow the carcass to Niles Beach in Gloucester, where it was anchored so that we would not lose it. The next day high winds and rain prevented us from doing anything further with the animal.
On Thursday, October 17, a team of people from The Whale Center of New England, the New England Aquarium, and the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game conducted a thorough necropsy on the whale (photos will be available soon). Although decomposition of some internal organs limited what we were able to learn, we did see bruising behind the flipper (where line had been wrapped) that appeared to have taken place while the animal was still alive. Further, we found undigested fish remains in the first two stomach chambers, indicating the whale had been feeding less than 12 hours prior to its death. Together, these two pieces of information indicate that the whale likely was feeding in or near the harbor, and became entangled in fishing gear while still alive. Upon entangling, the whale either towed the gear into more that was nearby, or further wrapped itself up in the same gear several times by thrashing, resulting in the tangle of line from which it was unable to free itself.
One of the tasks during the necropsy was to extract the skeleton of the whale for preservation and/or future study. Stephan Gersh, President of The Whale Center, put in a request for our ownership of the skeleton; the request was granted on site. After the team cleaned it as much as possible on the beach, the skeleton was buried for cleaning the next day. Unlike our other skeleton (of Inland, the humpback whale), the minke's bones were extracted during the dissection. Therefore, we could catalog every bone, treat it, and have a carefully prepared specimen.
While it is very sad that this young female minke died so tragically, we are glad that we can prepare a skeleton that will eventually be an excellent display animal. Since the circumstances of this whale's death demonstrate the importance of whale conservation and the problem of entanglement, the skeleton will complement our display, ensuring her death was not entirely in vain.
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