3rd dead whale on Outer Banks found Friday; likely offspring of pregnant dwarf sperm whale found nearby

Stranding response teams found a third dead whale washed up on the Outer Banks Friday, likely the offspring of a pregnant dwarf sperm whale found around the same time a few miles away.

The pregnant whale that washed up near Barnes Street in Nags Head on Friday afternoon was found with an intact two-foot fetus, which is shy of full term, and no obvious signs of how it died.

“We are waiting for diagnostic lab results and histopathology report,” said Marina Doshkov, database technician and marine mammal stranding coordinator at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

Also on Friday, a few miles south near Jennette’s Pier, a male juvenile dwarf sperm washed up on the beach and died thereafter. It was likely the older offspring of the female whale, and was probably too young to survive on its own, officials at Jennette’s Pier said Tuesday.

Dwarf sperm whales are found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide, according to NOAA Fisheries’ website. The species is “poorly known due to the limited availability of information and their cryptic appearance at sea,” the website says.

The two strandings marked the second and third on the Outer Banks last week.

On March 5, a 26-foot female minke whale was found dead north of Corolla on the four-wheel drive beach. The whale showed evidence of infectious disease, but the type of disease remains unknown.

“We are still waiting for diagnostic lab results to confirm what disease specifically,” said Doshkov.

Minke whales are the smallest members of the baleen or “great” whale family and they are abundant around the world, according to NOAA Fisheries. They are not considered endangered in the U.S., but they are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the website says.

The Outer Banks strandings came days after the deaths of two humpback whales that washed up in Virginia Beach March 2 and March 3.

The stranding response team at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center is still trying to determine the cause of death for the two whales, both considered juveniles.

Scars on both animals showed that they had been entangled during their lives.