Humpback whale weighing over 32 tons found dead in Marblehead

A dead humpback whale, weighing some 65,000 pounds and stretching more than 40 feet, was found in Marblehead last week with multiple impressions and scars on its body, indicating possible past entanglement, officials said. 

The whale — an adult humpback — was reported on Thursday evening, Seacoast Science Center Marine Mammal Rescue said in a statement on its Facebook page Saturday. The whale had washed up in a low tide and was in a couple feet of water when it was found, the organization said. 

Experts with Marine Mammal Rescue, NOAA Fisheries, and Tufts University conducted an external examination of the whale, and samples of the animal’s skin were sent to a lab to determine possible disease and its genetic lineage. 

“The external exam didn’t reveal any definitive cause of death, which we expected,” Marine Mammal Rescue said.

Several scars were found on the whale’s body, showing possible evidence of entanglement. 

“However, these impressions were not fresh wounds and there was no gear present on the animal,” Marine Mammal Rescue said. “So although it may suggest that she had an entanglement at some point in her life, it was not the cause of death.”

The town, harbormaster department, and outside contractors are working on a plan to tow the whale out of the cove it’s in and dispose of its body, according to Marine Mammal Rescue’s statement. 

“We are not sure at this time if a full internal examination will be possible (it was not feasible in the rocky cove she was stranded in) but we are thankful we could get the external examination and documentation done yesterday,” the statement said. 

An unusual mortality event — meaning an increased number of deaths — was declared for humpback whales along the Atlantic Coast in 2017, and has been ongoing since 2016, according to NOAA. In 2023, 37 individuals of the whale species died from the coasts of Maine to Florida, while 9 have died so far in 2024. 

Ship strikes or entanglements have been found to be the cause of death for approximately 40% humpback whales which have had necropsies, according to NOAA data. The public is asked to report sightings of live whales in distress or stranded or dead whales by calling the Greater Atlantic Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline at (866) 755-6622 or the Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline at (877) 433-8299 or contacting the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16.