Rare Whale Dies on Avalon Beach

AVALON –– Nearby beachgoers and Avalon Public Works employees tried to save a whale that beached itself by attempting to push it back into the water near 23rd Street at about 1 p.m. Oct. 1.
The marine mammal thrashed in the water for hours before it was pronounced dead at about 3 p.m. Public Works used heavy machinery to pull the marine mammal from out of the water.
Scientist from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine came to Avalon to examine the whale in the Avalon Public Works yard here Oct. 2
World-renowned marine scientist Dr. James Mead of the Smithsonian Institute told the Herald the whale is about 14 feet long and probably weighs about 3,000 pounds.
“I have probably seen more dead beaked whales than any other person alive,” he said.
It was initially thought to be a female True’s Beaked Whale but, after examination, it was determined to be an even more rare male Gervais Gulf Stream Beaked Whale, usually found far off the southern coast.
There are less than 100 records of the species and only 60 or 70 have been stranded in the U.S over the past 150 years, Mead said.
“We have only one other adult male in the collection,” Mead said. “This doubles our samples of adult males.”
The whale could probably dive down as far as the ocean is deep and, he said, it is able to stay under the water’s surface for about two hours.
As for its cause of death, Mead said, “God only knows” why the whale beached itself and died.
The best way to find out, he said, would be to observe its activity before death and to dissect it and see what parasites it had eaten. He said it could have died simply of old age.
Mead said the whale is probably close to 70-years-old, which is determined by examining layers of its teeth.
The whale’s entire skeleton will be transported to the Smithsonian but will not be put on display.
Contact Truluck at (609) 886-8600 ext. 24 or at: ltruluck @cmcherald.com.