Minke whale washes up on shore

When Amy Tudor looked down at the carcass of a minke whale that washed ashore on a rugged stretch of the Nova Scotia coast, she wondered if it was the same playful mammal that swam around her tour boat last July.

Tudor, who guides expeditions with Mariner Cruises Whale and Seabird Tours, said she noticed the animal months ago as she cruised waters off Brier Island, because it was inquisitive and came so close to the boat.

“It was an amazingly friendly minke,’’ she said Monday. “We had one that swam around the boat and it felt like it was playing with us.’’

On Friday, Tudor was called to a seaweed-covered piece of shoreline nearby in Tiverton on Long Island, after a fisherman searching for buoys discovered a whale laying lifeless on the rocks, with its eyes open and mouth agape.

When she got there, she started examining the animal, manually closed its eyes and wondered, “‘Is this that whale? Could that be that whale that I videotaped and photographed?’’’

Tudor said there were no clear signs of what caused the death, one of the latest in a mounting and worrisome mortality rate for the species in mostly U.S. waters.

The American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there were 29 minke whale deaths last year, including one so far this year, in a range that stretches from Maine to South Carolina — something it calls an “unusual mortality’’ for the population.

It says while minke whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the species is not listed as endangered or threatened. Minke whales are not considered endangered in Canada.

Necropsies done on over 60 per cent of the whales suggest several had died of human interactions or infectious disease. A team of scientists will review the data and sample stranded whales as part of an investigation.