Two gray whales found dead on area beaches

• Juvenile whales beached at Bishop’s, Starisky stump biologists
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Two gray whale deaths on area beaches are under study, one the possible victim of a killer whale and the other whose cause of death is unknown at this time. Both were pushed ashore by tides.
One whale was found the weekend of July 17 at Starisky Beach, measuring about 36 feet in length. Another, measuring 27 feet in length, washed ashore at Bishop’s Beach on Monday.
Marine Fisheries biologists and trained volunteers through the Alaska SeaLife Center took tissue and blubber samples from the whales so that scientists might gain insight into the deaths. Two gray whale deaths within weeks in the same area may seem an unusual circumstance, but Dr. Debbie Tobin, a biology professor and trained Sea Life volunteer, said that considering the gray whale activity in the area, this may not be so unusual.
Taxi operators and other boaters off Seldovia remarked of a gray whale “acting strangely” in calls to the stranded mammal hotline at the Alaska Sea Life Center on Friday, but biologists are uncertain whether it was the same one to wash ashore on Bishop’s Beach, Tobin said.
“They initially reported it as a humpback whale, which is a common mistake,” Tobin explained. “But this one was hanging out in the shallows and behaving unusual.”
Adults are said to be 39 or more feet in length, while calves are born averaging 15 feet in length, meaning biologists can estimate this one was a juvenile.
Markings on the dead whale at Bishop’s Beach indicate teeth on its tail and pectoral fluke. It’s skin was torn away, tongue yanked out and part of the throat missing, Tobin said. These are indicative of Orca or killer whale maulings.
“But whether it was attacked prior to its death or post mortem, we can’t say,” she explained.
The larger gray whale found at Starisky had been spotted floating in the current from Anchor Point on down. Calls were made to the Sea Life hotline for stranded marine mammals, and a group of volunteers with biologists went to investigate it around July 18. No immediate signs gave clues to its death, Tobin said.
At one time there were three gray whale populations: a north Atlantic group that is now extinct, a Korean or Pacific stock, considered “very depleted” and an eastern Pacific stock — the largest surviving population.
Alaska’s gray whales belong to the Pacific stock, whose only major predators are humans and killer whales. According to an Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Notebook Series, in 1999 and 2000, a disproportionate number of gray whales stranded along the west coast but what caused that isn’t certain. The western Pacific group of gray whales were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Conservation Act.

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Posted by Newsroom on Jul 28th, 2010 and filed under Headline News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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