Dear Editor: I would like to express my deepest gratitude and thank you to the volunteers who helped with the recent AK Stranding Network response to the fin whale in Sitka.
The Sitka response team is wholly made up of volunteers who volunteer for the NOAA AK Marine Mammal Stranding Network. They spend countless hours per year helping with responses to dead or stranded marine mammals in the Sitka area. This year, that has included a pregnant beaked whale, two humpback whales, a handful of entanglement reports, and the recent fin whale.
Special thanks to Stacy Golden and Willa Johnson for their continued and countless efforts at last-minute responses; additional thanks to Mike Miller with Sitka Tribe and Indigenous People’s Council for his advice, assistance, and hours of consultation over this season.
Our fin whale response had assistance in aerial photogrammetry from Josh Houston and dive assistance and underwater sampling from Chance Gray. The Sitka Trail Works team of Dalton Gross and Cory Yeaton provided critical support with the grip hoist – special thanks to Laurant Diviche with U.S. Forest Service and Ben Hughey with Sitka Trail Works for permission to use the tools! Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s Resource Protection Division (Jeff Feldpausch) sent an amazing team of volunteers including: Alex Tugaw, Shannon Cellan, Mateo Cross, Molly Tribe, Kenzie Holland, Haley Goodman, Emma Spies, and Sarahlily Stein.
Other community sampling and necropsy volunteers who cut and bagged and labeled and sharpened knives and cleaned and generally sampled anything we asked of them included: Madalyn Muñoz, Pat Swedeen, Alex McCarrel, Sara Mach (UAF), Ellie Seida (SSSC), Kari Paustian (SSSC), Anya O’Neil (UAS), Ava Korpiewski (UAS), Katie Thornsberry (UAS), Tahvo Wilson (SSSC), Jason Young (UAS), and Melody Liu (SSSC).
We are especially grateful for the assistance of Dr. Nicole Caraway and Allyn Moon from Pets Choice Veterinary Hospital. Finally, special thanks to the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) officers in Sitka for their assistance: Ted Hasty and Tyler Rogacki.
All samples and data collected has been sent to the Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services in Anchorage; the NOAA Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network; and the NOAA OLE agents for investigation and further analysis. We hope to have more information on this whale from them in the coming weeks.
Lastly we would like to make the community aware that Fin whales are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. It is illegal for anyone to collect tissue, baleen, or any part of the whale (including bones), unless you are Alaska Native and collecting tissue or parts for subsistence or use in handicrafts. For more information please contact Jenna Malek (907-209-0637) or Carley Lowe (401-782-3207) with NOAA’s Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Thank you,
Lauren Wild, University of Alaska Southeast, Sitka Campus,
and Marine Mammal Stranding
Coordinator
