HUMPBACK WHALE NECROPSY REPORT EXCERPTS
excerpts from
Humpback whale necropsy report
by Frances Gulland, Vet. MB., MRCVS, PhD
The Marine Mammal Center
Sausalito, California
July 22 2001
"This whale is a 45 ft 6 inch long adult female whale identified by tail fluke markings as resight #68 in the Humpback whale catalogue. It is lying in dorsal
recumbency on sand at Point Gustavus, Glacier Bay National Park.
There are multiple compound fractures of the skull. The brain case is fractured. There are bones (ribs, mandible, skull) from a fetal whale loose within the peritoneal cavity.
These post mortem findings are consistent with a traumatic injury resulting from a severe blunt blow to the right side of the head. The extent of skull damage
would have been immediately fatal. "
Frances Gulland, Vet. MB., MRCVS, PhD
Anchorage Daily News
Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Dead whale found near Glacier Bay
by Martha Bellisle, Anchorage Daily News
Juneau-A 45-foot humpback whale found floating dead just outside Glacier Bay National Park died of massive head injuries, park managers said Monday and they think it may have been struck by a cruise ship.
The animal was discovered in Icy Strait last week and examined Sunday.
"What we found was a heavily damaged skull," said Jed Davis, G lacier Bay's deputy park superintendent. The injuries indicate the whale "was hit by something very, very large -- probably a very large ship -- and killed instantly," he said. The animal was pregnant, he said.
No ships have reported collisions with whales in the area recently. Humpbacks are classified as an endangered species, and if a vessel's crew was aware of a collision in park waters, it would have to be reported within 24 hours, officials said. A collision wouldn't have to be reported outside the park.
The injury was so severe that it was likely caused by a very large vessel, such as a cruise ship or an oil tanker, Davis said. Because cruise ships are the primary large ships moving through the area, the National Park Service thinks it's possible that one hit the whale, he said.
...A new federal law designed to protect humpback whales from harassment went into effect July 2. It requires people to stay at least 100 yards away.
...Glacier Bay has strict rules on how boats and ships interact with marine mammals, Davis said. Vessels can't go within a quarter-mile of a humpback, he said, and any vessel that strikes any object must report it to the park superintendent within 24 hours."
Anchorage Daily News
Friday, August 17, 2001
Park Service zeroes in on ship that killed whale
by Paula Dobbyn, Anchorage Daily News
The National Park Service is close to cracking the case of what smashed the skull of a pregnant humpback whale in Southeast last month, officials said Thursday.
The federal agency has followed up on tips from ship passengers who said they had information possible collision with a whale, said Chuck Young, chief ranger at Glacier Bay National Park, 50 miles northwest of Juneau...."
We've had a few calls from people who felt they were on a vessel that may have collided with a whale," Young said.
...Investigators have concluded that a big ship was responsible for the whales's death, but they're not ready to reveal the vessel's identity because they're still collecting evidence, said John Quinley, an agency spokesman."
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF WHALE #68
On a typical day in Glacier bay, hundreds of passengers are looking down from the 14th floor of a cruise ship, almost 130 feet above sea level, straining to hold the binoculars still and find the whale that the captain or the cruise ship naturalist may have just announced as surfacing near the ship's bow. This is it! This is what everyone has come on a cruise to experience--wildlife close up. Those advertising photographs of whales breaching, tail lifting, pectoral fins slapping the water, fill the mind. And there is the whale! Magnificent, sleek, so close.. What a day in Glacier Bay!
First sighted in 1975 by Charles Jurasz in Berg and Fingers Bays, this whale was nicknamed "Snow" (perhaps due to white dots on her flukes). Whale #68 in the Glacier Bay Park catalog was then sighted repeatedly through southeastern Alaska between 1975 and 2001. She was sighted in Hawaii and Alaska in the same year. As a productive female, she is likely the mother of 10 offspring and (assuming half of those were female) the grandmother of an additional 10 calves. She is probably even the great-grandmother of at least one calf.
Whale #68's last documented sighting alive was on June 26, 2001 at North Lemesurier Island, by Park Biologist Janet Doherty.
Then, on July 16, the bloated body of the dead whale was found floating near Point Gustavus by Janet Doherty. The 45 ½ foot long carcass was towed by the Park Service to the beach at Point Gustavus to be examined. The Park then decided to call in a marine mammal veterinarian to conduct a more thorough examination.
Whale #68 was probably about four to five months pregnant when she died. The fetus might have been approximately 18 inches in length, and had its mother lived, the young calf would probably have been 16 feet long at its birth this winter in the Hawaiian Islands.
The necropsy provided interesting data, including "earplugs", which can be read like the layers of tree rings to determine whale age; stomach contents for determining what it had been eating; and skin samples which provide genetic information about the separation of humpback whale stocks in the North Pacific as well as Whale #68's relatedness to other whales in southeastern Alaska.
Most significant is the neocropsy's final paragraph: " These post mortem findings are consistent with a traumatic injury resulting from a severe blunt blow to the right side of the head." Could Whale #68 have been hit by a ship?
A scientific article published in Marine Mammal Science in January 2001 titled Collisions Between Ships and Whales by David W. Laist, and others reviewed historical records of all documented whale - vessel collisions in the years 1830-2000. The study indicates that most lethal ship-strikes are due to ship speeds greater than 13 knots, and attributed to ships at least 80 meters in length.
Might whale #68 have been confused by propeller and engine noise blocked by a large ship's hull? Might sound levels near the surface, where whales feed, travel and rest, have been reduced or masked, as "whales engaged in feeding also may be less responsive to approaching ships." (p.56, Marine Mammal Science, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2001). Might she have become overly tolerant of vessels in Glacier Bay due to habituation brought on by increased whale watching in her Alaska and Hawaii habitats over the past 10 years?
WHAT WILL BECOME OF WHALE #68's REMAINS?
Should the Park Service leave the whale on the beach to deteriorate naturally, or should it clean and re-assemble the bones into a skeleton for use as an educational display at the Park, in Gustavus, or in another local community? If you have ideas or comments about the possibility of salvaging the skeleton for educational use, please contact Chief of Interpretation Kris Nemeth. The preservation of the skeleton would provide ongoing recognition of the life and death of this whale.
