Featured Image Credit: Taylor Balkom/Ketchikan Daily News via news.com
When a massive cruise ship in Alaska showed up to a port with the carcass of a humpback whale on its bow, people were shocked. And according to the cruise line’s spokesman, Brian O’Connor, the crew of the ship was in just as much disbelief.
“It is unknown how or when this happened as the ship felt no impact,” O’Connor said in a statement. “It is also unknown, at this time, whether the whale was alive or already deceased before becoming lodged on the bow.”The cruise ship, The Grand Princess, has a whale avoidance program implemented. This program requires crews to be trained on how to operate in the spotting of a whale. The crew said to have seen no whales near the ship as they sailed overnight near the border of British Columbia.
Turns out, The Grand Princess actually has a whale avoidance program in place so things like this don’t happen. But apparently, the crew said they did not see any whales near or around the ship as they sailed overnight near the border of British Columbia, going into the third day of a 10-day expedition.
A tugboat towed the whale 13 kilometers to Blank Inlet on Gravina Island to perform a necropsy that will determine the definite cause of the whale’s death.
But this is not the first time a whale has been spotted on the bow of a cruise ship in an Alaskan port. This could be attributed to the fact that there are three distinct populations of humpbacks in the Alaska waters. Sadly, most of them are categorized as endangered, threatened, or no longer listed. Just last May, the same thing happened when a cruise ship came into an Alaskan port with the carcass of a juvenile fin whale on its bow.
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