Overview
- The 61-foot adult female fin whale was discovered lodged on the bulbous bow of a cruise ship that arrived in Seward, Alaska, on Friday and was towed to a nearby beach for examination.
- Preliminary necropsy results reported by NOAA Fisheries indicate the whale was pregnant, and teams from NOAA and the Alaska SeaLife Center are collecting samples to establish the cause of death.
- The NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement has an open investigation and asked the public to report tips to its 24-hour hotline while officials warned people to stay off the necropsy site for safety and legal reasons.
- Conservation groups cited the case as further evidence of the lethal risk ship strikes pose to large whales and renewed calls for measures such as mandatory speed limits in known whale hotspots.
- Fin whales are listed as endangered and face repeated human threats including vessel strikes, entanglement, noise and climate change, and officials noted this incident follows similar recent cases of whales found on ship bows along U.S. coasts.