Dead Humpback Whale Discovered In Madaket Harbor

A dead 40-foot humpback whale was discovered Tuesday morning floating in Madaket Harbor, prompting marine officials to monitor and investigate the massive carcass.

The decomposed whale was first spotted Tuesday morning by Noelle Maroney, who was out on a boat in Madaket Harbor. Maroney’s sighting prompted a visit by Coast Guard Station Brant Point, along with Kim Schulam, the stranding coordinator for the Marine Mammal Alliance.

When they arrived, the whale was stuck on a shoal in about a foot to two-feet of water.

“NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) keeps track of all the marine mammal data, and there is an unusual mortality event occurring right now with humpback whales, so they want to get a feel for what’s going on with the animal,” said Schulman, who took skin samples of the whale for NOAA scientists, along with photographs and measurements. “They want to know if it was entangled, had a ship-strike, and for us to get pictures of the fluke to identify it, along with the skin sample.”

That skin sample can be genetically tested to determine if the whale was one that was already known to NOAA.

All the work was done under a stranding agreement between NOAA and the Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket.

Schulam said the carcass of the whale was in a state of decomposition that indicated it had been dead and at sea for “for awhile.” As for the cause of death, there was nothing obvious that would indicate a ship-strike.

“Somehow it floated into Madaket Harbor, but it’s hard to say where it came from,” Schulam said.

The unusual mortality event referenced by Schulam that is affecting humpback whales along the East Coast of the United States has been observed since January 2016. Since then, NOAA has recorded 145 humpback whale strandings from Maine to Florida. NOAA was able to perform partial or full necropsies on about half of those whales. Of the carcasses examined, 50 percent appeared to have died from human interactions like ship strikes or entanglement.

Coast Guard Station Brant Point Petty Officer Ian Ralph was among the team that travelled out to Madaket Harbor Tuesday morning with Schulam to inspect the whale carcass. Despite the location of the whale on a shoal, the crew was able to get its shallow-water rescue boat up close to the whale, allowing Schulam to get skin samples. It also gave Ralph a close-up look at the carcass.

“It definitely had some chunks bitten out of it,” Ralph said.

At this point, the whale is not considered a hazard to navigation, but Ralph said his team would continue to monitor its location and return to tow the whale if it ended up in the channel.