By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Scientists conducting a necropsy on a humpback whale say the cause of death is “inconclusive at this time,” but further analysis in coming months may help determine a cause.
Lauren Wild, a professor with the fisheries technology program at the University of Alaska Southeast, Sitka Campus, wrote a brief report on the necropsy, performed on Shoals Point on March 18. Wild also is the local volunteer coordinator for the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The U.S. Coast Guard found the whale March 14, but it took several days for the weather to cooperate enough to allow a group to get to the site, 12 miles west of Sitka.
Wild said a group of volunteers spent about five and a half hours on the beach performing the necropsy, with a main goal to determine cause of death.
“The whale was cut open and the group looked for signs of trauma, that might include hemorrhaging or bone fractures,” Wild reported. ‘‘The whale was a 47-foot female, in good body condition with average blubber depth, and a full stomach that looked to be comprised of mainly fish remains.”
A team of University of Alaska Southeast biologists and volunteers perform a necropsy on a humpback whale at Shoals Point on Kruzof Island Thursday. It’s against federal law to remove any part of a protected marine animal unless authorized. (Photo provided by the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network)
She said tissue samples were collected from the lungs, heart, liver, stomach, and other organs and will be sent to the Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services in Eagle River for further analysis.
“The findings for cause of death were inconclusive at the time, but tissue samples, data, and footage will be reviewed and analyzed, and a report will come out in the coming months that may help determine cause of death,” Wild said.
Wild took over recently as the local volunteer coordinator of the marine mammal stranding network from Jan Straley, a whale biologist and professor at UAS Sitka, who was the volunteer coordinator for decades.
This means if a call comes in about a dead whale or pinniped around Sitka, the NOAA stranding folks in Juneau will get in touch with Wild and if there is an opportunity to respond, she will organize a group of local volunteers, Wild told the Sentinel.
The process for performing the necropsy last week started with the Coast Guard’s call to NOAA, which alerted Straley and Wild, who assembled the group to respond.
They included:
Ellen Chenoweth, UAS Sitka & UAF BLaST program
Ted Hasty, NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement
Stacy Golden, Sitka School District
Pat Swedeen, City of Sitka
Josh Houston, City of Sitka
Leigh Engel, Sitka Tribe of Alaska
Molly Grear, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Paul Norwood and Brooke Schafer – local stranding network volunteers
Chenoweth was able to get out the afternoon of March 14 on a boat with Houston, a drone operator, to collect imaging of the whale. Wild said the weather deteriorated by March 15, so the necropsy team was organized for the 18th.
The U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka helicopter took a group of six volunteers to the site. Two boats of volunteers came out to help as well.
Wild also wanted to acknowledge and thank those who took part:
- Jan Straley helped coordinate the efforts, and her whale research lab at UAS Sitka houses the stranding network equipment and provides supplies to volunteers.
- Dennis Rogers of Petersburg who took Ellen and Josh out on his vessel, the Northern Song, to collect the initial footage of the animal.
- All volunteers who donated their time, and some raingear that had to be thrown away, to help with the effort.
“And special thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard for their generosity in collaborating with NOAA Fisheries to bring volunteers to the site,” Wild wrote.
Also of note, Wild said, is that the flukes will get matched to the Southeast Alaska humpback whale database, which is housed with Straley’s lab at UAS Sitka. She said today that there are no matches but the effort will continue.
“It means no one has taken a picture of it yet, or the whale is new to Southeast,” she told the Sentinel.
UAS works with other organizations around the state on the database to help monitor humpback whale population dynamics, including sighting history, genetics and movement.
“There are a lot of flukes to go through to match this one, and maybe that’s why we haven’t found it yet,” Wild added. “There are thousands of flukes in the database.”
She said members of the public can contribute fluke images to HappyWhale.com, an online fluke matching software website.
The NOAA Fisheries AK Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline: (877) 925-7773.
