Sick Whale Euthanized Off Coast Of North Carolina

HATTERAS, N.C. (WAVY) - A Coast Guard boat crew responded to reports of a stranded whale off Hatteras Inlet, N.C., Saturday afternoon.

The whale was identified as a 20 to 30-foot humpback whale.

A Coast Guard boat crew from Hatteras Inlet transported members from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Virginia Aquarium, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and veterinarians from North Carolina State University to administer aid to the whale.

Veterinarians determined that whale had to be euthanized. It will be taken to a location off Hatteras Inlet on Monday.

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Here are some facts we may have forgotten about this type of whale:

Humpback whales are known for their magical songs, which travel for great distances through the world's oceans. These sequences of moans, howls, cries, and other noises are quite complex and often continue for hours on end. Scientists are studying these sounds to decipher their meaning. It is most likely that humpbacks sing to communicate with others and to attract potential mates.

These whales are found near coastlines, feeding on tiny shrimp-like krill, plankton, and small fish. Humpbacks migrate annually from summer feeding grounds near the poles to warmer winter breeding waters closer to the Equator. Mothers and their young swim close together, often touching one another with their flippers with what appear to be gestures of affection. Females nurse their calves for almost a year, though it takes far longer than that for a humpback whale to reach full adulthood. Calves do not stop growing until they are ten years old.

Humpbacks are powerful swimmers, and they use their massive tail fin, called a fluke, to propel themselves through the water and sometimes completely out of it. These whales, like others, regularly leap from the water, landing with a tremendous splash. Scientists aren't sure if this breaching behavior serves some purpose, such as cleaning pests from the whale's skin, or whether whales simply do it for fun.

They can weight up to 40 tons and grow the size comparable to a bus. Status is endangered.

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Humpback Whale Entangled In Net Eludes Rescuers Off Cape Charles

A humpback whale entangled in a gill net eluded would-be rescuers Wednesday afternoon after a tracking buoy came loose in the Chesapeake Bay off Cape Charles.

The 25-foot whale appeared to be healthy, but a three-person stranding team from the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center could not tell how badly it was entangled, said team member Jeff Thompson.

“When we got there, it was about 3 miles northwest of Kiptopeke State Park,” Thompson said. “It was swimming strong.”

The team approached in an inflatable boat and attached a GPS tracking buoy to the net trailing behind the animal, but the buoy came loose about 10 minutes later, he said, and the whale submerged.

The aquarium stranding team is part of the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network, a series of first responders along the East Coast. Attaching buoys is a common strategy used by rescuers, adapted from an old-time whaling technique called “kegging.”

Once a tracking buoy is attached, rescuers follow the whale and keep adding buoys to increase drag and slow down the animal. As it tires, they begin trying to remove the entangling gear.

Thompson said the humpback whale was spotted about 1:30 p.m. by a fisherman. Its length was initially estimated at 65 feet, but it turned out to be less than half that size.

An airplane from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission helped keep track of the whale until the stranding team arrived. The commission, Coast Guard and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries had ships standing by as the team attempted the dangerous job of cutting the net off a free-swimming whale.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees all stranding work with marine mammals, says that whales’ reactions to disentanglement efforts varies by species: “North Atlantic right whales are the most difficult whales to disentangle because they are extremely powerful animals that put up a seemingly endless fight instead of giving in to disentanglement efforts as humpbacks normally do.”

The humpback off Cape Charles, however, did not cooperate.

“The thing gave us the slip,” Thompson said. “We have talked to local fishermen and asked if they see it again to please give us a call.”

Boaters should not attempt to disentangle the whale themselves, he said.

Disentanglement efforts can take hours or even days. In 2005, a team from another organization followed a right whale for 60 miles and 20 hours before freeing it. That whale had been spotted off Virginia nearly a month before rescuers were able to track it down off Georgia and free it.

Thompson said the Virginia Aquarium is called to disentangle a large whale on average every other year. In 2007, the team successfully removed a commercial gill net from a humpback off Virginia Beach.

In that case, the net anchored the whale in place, but allowed it to surface for breathing.

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