A container ship docking in New Jersey arrived with a grim and disgusting slab of cargo: a dead whale draped across its bow. How an endangered animal ended up lazily slopped on top of a steel freight liner as it made it into port is currently being investigated.
According to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, this past Sunday, at a Marine terminal in Gloucester City, the U.S. Coast Guard spotted the whale carcass shortly after the ship docked and immediately reported it. The center is now coordinating with local authorities to remove the whale and conduct a necropsy, which should help determine how it died.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has also opened an investigation and is asking the public to report any information that might clarify what happened.
Dead Whale Found on Container Ship in New Jersey, Sparks Investigation
It’s been tentatively identified as a fin whale, the second-largest animal on earth behind the blue whale. Adult fin whales can grow to more than 80 feet long and weigh up to 80 tons, but this one measured roughly 25 to 30 feet. This means it was likely a juvenile.
Tragic, especially considering that fin whales are listed as endangered. Their numbers are still recovering after being pushed to the brink of extinction by commercial whaling, which ended in the 1980s. 40+ years later, and their numbers still haven’t fully recovered.
While fin whales don’t have to worry about commercial hunting in the United States, they are still threatened by humans. Vessel strikes are the leading cause of death for large whales, especially in busy shipping corridors like the ones off the East Coast of the U.S.
Fin whales travel through the waters between New Jersey and New York, where massive commercial ships are constantly wading through. Harming whales is illegal under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The whale carcass draped across the bow has been removed, but there are still a lot of questions that need answers, like “how?” and “what the f—k?”
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