(Trends Wide) — The two humpback whales were found dead off the coast of New York and New Jersey, according to local officials.
The National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the presence of the two whales in a Facebook post on Wednesday. One whale was off Wainscott, New York, and the other was off Raritan Bay, New Jersey, the agency said.
The Atlantic Marine Conservation Society and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center conducted necropsies on both whales, according to a Friday update from NOAA.
The first whale, to reach Shinnecock Inlet and washed ashore in Southampton, was a 47-foot (14.3-meter) long male, the agency reported. The cause of death was “suspected blunt force trauma.”
“While this corpse was badly decomposed, the scientists noted bruising to the fat and muscle on both sides of the head,” the publication said.
Samples were collected for further analysis and the whale was buried on the beach.
Two dead humpback whales were found off the coast of New York and New Jersey. NOAA Fishing
The second whale was a 28-foot (8.5-meter) long female, the publication said. The US Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Service towed the whale from Raritan Bay to Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where it was necropsied.
This whale appeared to have been struck by a ship, according to the post. He had “bruises, lacerations, and fractures in various places on his body, including fractures to his skull and left pectoral fin, which had been severed.”
The cause of death was identified as “suspected acute blunt force trauma consistent with ship strike,” the publication said. Samples were collected and the whale was buried on the beach.
The two strandings were not related, according to the agency.
Humpback whale deaths off the East Coast have been on the rise since January 2016, according to records from the National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency declared an “Unusual Humpback Whale Mortality Event along the Atlantic Coast” in April 2017.
A total of 23 humpback whales have stranded so far in 2023, including five in New York and seven in New Jersey, the agency reported.
The agency noted that while more research is needed to fully understand the cause of the deaths, 40% of the whales that underwent necropsies showed “evidence of human interaction, either collision with ships or entanglement.”
The huge sea creatures live in all of the world’s oceans, according to the agency. Humpback whales can weigh up to 40 tons, measure up to 18 meters (60 feet), and live up to 90 years.
The whale population was severely depleted by whaling until the practice was banned in 1985, the agency said. The species is still protected under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act, but boat strikes and entanglements in fishing gear remain a serious threat.
