Rarely seen beaked whale washes ashore in Massachusetts
Swimmers and sunbathers on Jones Beach in Plymouth, Mass. were joined Friday by an unexpected guest: a rarely-seen beaked whale.
The 17-foot-long female whale weighing almost a ton had died by the time it washed up on the beach. The New England Aquarium said it believes the animal was a Sowerby鈥檚 beaked whale, a species of deep-water whale that inhabits northern waters and virtually never approaches the shore.
The aquarium said in a statement Saturday that beaked whales are 鈥渟o rarely seen that New England Aquarium biologists have been conferring to determine the exact species,鈥� The aquarium has not seen a beaked whale in close to a decade, the statement said. Usually, sightings of Sowerby鈥檚 beaked whales are limited to fishermen who find the whales caught in their nets.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a glimpse into a habitat that鈥檚 not so far away, but it鈥檚 still a world away,鈥� aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse of the sighting. 鈥淭hey live in a world of their own.鈥�
As of Saturday, the aquarium and the International Fund for Animal Welfare were jointly conducting a necropsy on the whale, which upon initial examination showed no signs of having collided with a boat or become tangled in fishing gear, the Globe reported. The carcass鈥檚 鈥渇resh,鈥� 鈥済ood鈥� condition combined with its unusual location have biologists questioning the 鈥渉ow鈥� and the 鈥渨hy鈥� behind the whale鈥檚 appearance.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e very, very rare,鈥� Mr. LaCasse told the Herald. 鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely one of those things you鈥檙e not quite sure what to make of,鈥� he said.
Plymouth harbormaster Chad Hunter told the Globe officials were alerted Friday at around 10 a.m. that a whale had washed up onto the beach. But during low tide, the whale was stuck on rocks and could not be moved. When high tide came around 5 p.m. that day, the whale was towed to the pier and crane-lifted onto a trailer to be taken away by the aquarium.
Mary Kate McHugh DiLoreto, a regular beach walker, of the whale to Facebook, calling the sighting 鈥渧ery cool.鈥�
Sowerby鈥檚 beaked whales are not believed to be rare 鈥� just rarely spotted. According to the sightings are uncommon and biologists know little about the whale despite the fact that it is one of the most frequently stranded species. Massachusetts marks the southern border of the whale鈥檚 habitat; in the west, it extends up to Labrador, Canada, and in the east, it ranges from Iceland to Norway.
LaCasse told the Globe the sighting offers 鈥渁 glancing insight into a marine species that not much is known of.鈥�
