Young humpback whale likely died from fishing gear entanglement on the Outer Banks
RODANTHE — The dead humpback whale that washed up on the beach of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday was a 31.5-foot-long juvenile female that likely died from impacts of fishing gear entanglement, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesperson.
“An entangled humpback whale was first reported to the stranding network on the evening of Saturday, April 13, swimming about 150 yards offshore of Rodanthe, North Carolina,” Allison Garrett, a communications specialist with NOAA Fisheries/U.S. Department of Commerce, said in a Wednesday afternoon email.
“The next morning, a local fisherman saw and reported the whale alive and entangled in fishing gear working off the coast of Rodanthe,” Garrett continued. “Unfortunately, while in the process of NOAA providing guidance to the fisherman to aid the whale, the whale died.”
The whale washed up on the north end of Pea Island “with fishing gear entangled around a pectoral fin and in its mouth,” where National Park Service personnel found it Tuesday morning, she said.
Pea Island is located on the northern end of Hatteras Island.
A necropsy was being conducted Wednesday, according to Garrett. “It is likely that the whale died from the impacts of the entanglement.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in North Carolina, which manages the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, thanked the people who let staff know about the whale in a succinct Facebook post around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“Biologists have assessed the situation and anchored the dead whale to shore in order to perform a necropsy when tide conditions allow,” the USFWS post said.
This juvenile humpback is the fourth whale to wash up on Outer Banks beaches in a little over a month and the seventh between northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia.
Two humpback whales washed up in Virginia Beach in two days, March 3 and 4, continuing a long-term trend of elevated mortalities since 2016, according to NOAA experts.
Scars indicated both of those whales had been entangled during their lives, but investigations were still ongoing as of March 11.
A 26-foot female minke whale was found dead on the four-wheel drive beach north of Corolla on March 5. That whale showed evidence of infectious disease, but the type of disease remains unknown.
Minke whale deaths have also been high in recent years for reasons that could include human interaction and infectious disease, but NOAA reported that more research is needed.
A pregnant dwarf sperm whale that washed up near Barnes Street in Nags Head on March 8 had an intact two-foot fetus, which is shy of full term. The cause of death is unclear.
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Officials presumed that a male juvenile dwarf sperm whale that washed up the same day just north of Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head was the pregnant whale’s offspring and was too young to survive alone. Alive at first, that whale died later, according to officials.
Dwarf sperm whales are found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide, according to the NOAA website. The species is “poorly known due to the limited availability of information and their cryptic appearance at sea,” the website said.
On March 30, an endangered North Atlantic right whale was found dead offshore near Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach.
A necropsy report released earlier this month cited “catastrophic injuries” and vertebrae fractures that are “consistent with blunt force trauma from a vessel strike prior to death.”
Additional testing of samples from the right whale was still pending.
Garrett said that people should report any injured, entangled or stranded marine mammals to 1-877-WHALEHELP (877-942-5343).
