Local News

Humpback whale carcass washes up on Plymouth beach

Experts do not yet know the cause of death of the whale, and say it may take "months" to find out.

The whale carcass lays on a Plymouth beach as WDC employees look on. "WDC is authorized by NOAA to respond to stranded marine mammals through an agreement as part of the Greater Atlantic Regional Marine Mammal Stranding Network. We recognize that whales and dolphins are family to some Indigenous Peoples and play a significant role in the health of our planet," WDC said. "We share these images as part of our work, but we do so with respect and sympathies for their loss to their families and to the ecosystem." Photo Courtesy of Whale and Dolphin Conservation

By Eva Levin

2 minutes to read

A humpback whale carcass washed up on a Plymouth beach on Tuesday morning, environmental experts said. 

Plymouth-based group Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) said they received reports of a stranded humpback whale on a beach near Center Hill Road in Plymouth. Their team responded to the carcass and conducted an external exam, a spokesperson for WDC said. 

Due to current storms covering much of Massachusetts, WDC said they secured the carcass “on site.” They are working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries to determine a location for a necropsy of the carcass, “if the condition of the carcass post-storm allows it to be moved.”

WDC employees assess the whale carcass on Tuesday morning. Photo courtesy of WDC.

The environmental organization said they contacted the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to see if they would like to perform a ceremony and pay respects to the deceased whale. The tribe did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

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NOAA asked the public to keep a “safe distance” from all marine animals, and report any stranded animals to their hotline at 866-755-6622.

‘Unusual mortality event’: recent spike in humpback whale deaths

WDC said they have not yet determined a cause of death for the whale. Sometimes it can take “weeks or months” to find one, the spokesperson said. Samples from the carcass are sent to laboratories to confirm what kinds of injuries caused the whale’s death, WDC explained. 

However, the WDC specified it may take months to attribute a cause of death to this specific whale. A spokesperson from NOAA said they have observed an “unusual mortality event” related to humpback whales since 2016.

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“Based on the carcasses examined in these cases, most of these mortalities have been the result of vessel strikes and accidental entanglements in fishing gear, along with infectious disease in the case of minke whales,” WDC said. 

There have been 232 stranded humpback whales along the Atlantic coast in the past eight years, NOAA data shows. Forty-seven of those whales washed ashore in Massachusetts, according to the data. WDC said this is the fifth stranding since July, calling it a “significant increase” from previous years. 

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Eva Levin

Eva Levin is a general assignment co-op for Boston.com. She covers breaking and local news in Boston and beyond.

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