Whales that washed up in Virginia Beach both had ‘abnormal skin lesions’

While the causes of death for two whales that washed up in Virginia Beach are still under investigation, scars on both animals showed that they had been entangled during their lives.

Kristina Scott, public relations manager for the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, said the stranding response team is still working to find an official cause of death for the two whales. The in-field assessment, where the team began the necropsy’s internal and external exams on the beach, has been completed. Tissue samples from the whales were taken for assessment, and their bodies were buried on the beaches where they were found.

“The team will analyze the samples, photos and data they collected to try to determine the cause of death, which is unknown at this point,” Scott said. “This step takes careful assessment and time.”

The first whale, measuring 32 feet in length and weighing approximately 32,000 pounds, was stranded March 3 at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. The second whale, which was 27 feet long and weighed about 21,800 pounds, stranded at False Cape State Park the next day.

Scott said the team has already made several assessments on the whales’ lives based on information gathered at the beaches. Both were considered juvenile or “immature” whales. The two also had “abnormal skin lesions,” and Scott said the team will continue to assess where they could have come from. Scott said healed scars from entanglements were also found on both animals, but those injuries were not lethal and a “chronic part” of both whales’ lives in the ocean.

Last week, two other whales — a minke whale and a dwarf sperm whale — washed up on the Outer Banks. Conservationists say the strandings are part of a much larger trend of whale deaths on the East Coast, likely caused by human activities like vessel strikes or entanglements with fishing gear.

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com