Featured Image Credit: The Marine Mammal Center via SF Gate
By Sarah Sharkey
On Friday morning, a blue whale carcass washed ashore on Agate Beach in Bolinas. At 79-feet the whale was quite the sight.
The carcass was first reported on late Thursday evening to the Marine Mammal Center. The next morning the whale was on the beach and scientists from the Marin Mammal Center and California Academy of Sciences were able to identify the whale as a sub-female adult. They also took some preliminary samples of skin and blubber tissues.
Research assistant at the Marine Mammal Center, Barbie Halaska said, “We rarely have the opportunity to examine blue whales due to their endangered status. The opportunity to perform a necropsy on a carcass in this good of condition will help contribute to our baseline data on the species.”
The scientists returned on Saturday to perform a full necropsy and discovered that the massive blue whale was likely hit by a ship.
According to NBC Bay Area, the whale suffered wounds that are “indicative of significant blunt force trauma that is consistent with ship strikes,” including broken ribs, a fractured spine, and skull trauma.
“It is a tragedy that this whale’s story ended due to vessel collision,” said Halaska.
This whale was not unknown to scientists though. The unique fluke marking on the carcass matched with a cetacean in the Cascadia Research database. The whale was first spotted in 1999 and was seen at least 11 times since then.