A 55-Foot Fin Whale Washed Up on a Massachusetts Beach. What Killed It?

[Judi Lynn]

By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | August 23, 2018 07:18am ET

A finback whale that died near the coast of Massachusetts has unwittingly donated its body to science.

On Monday (Aug. 20), the Duxbury Police Department posted on Twitter to ask the public to avoid Duxbury Beach, where a 55-foot-long (17 meters) whale carcass was resting in the surf. New England Aquarium marine biologists were soon on the scene to necropsy the whale, according to Boston.com. Samples have been sent to labs around the country, said aquarium spokesperson Diana McCloy, but it will be weeks or months before scientists learn anything more about the whale's cause of death.

There's more to the necropsy than just ascertaining why the single animal died, however. Finback whales, also known as fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), are speedy, elusive swimmers, said Linda Lory, a senior biologist in the rescue department at the New England Aquarium. [Whale Album: Giants of the Deep]

"They are so fast, and they don't breach up like a lot of other whales," Lory told Live Science. That means that stranded carcasses are one of the easier ways to study the animals' anatomy and physiology.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/63409-dead-finback-whale-massachusetts-beach.html

[Javaman]

1. what killed it? we did; in other some direct or indirect way. nt