40-ton humpback whale washes up on Cape Cod beach
Vector the whale's visits to New England waters were documented beginning in 1984.
A humpback whale that washed up on a Sandwich beach on Monday has been a regular to New England waters for well over 30 years.The whale, known as Vector, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare of Yarmouth Port, has swum near the shores of Massachusetts and Maine for years; sightings were first documented in 1984, according to WCVB.The whale’s body has provided a spectacle to those interested in a rare opportunity of seeing the animal up close. Vector measures 45 feet long and weighs roughly 40 tons, The Sandwich Enterprise reported. The attention hasn’t been optimal for researchers hoping to figure out how Vector died.“It’s not in a great location,” Melanie Mahoney, a spokeswoman for the IFAW, told the Cape Cod Times.Mahoney told the Enterprise that the organization is “saddened” by Vector’s loss.“I am looking forward to our teams doing their job to dig into her story to find out what happened to her,” she said. “We will do our best to determine the cause of death.”
Humpback whale carcass washes up on East Sandwich beach https://t.co/Y2uecS3eds #CapeCod pic.twitter.com/1OdLkEDxZq
— Cape Cod Times (@capecodtimes) May 7, 2019
