Aquarium aids efforts to free dead whale in R.I.
STONINGTON — A team from the Mystic Aquarium’s Animal Rescue Program was dispatched to Rhode Island this week to respond to help efforts to free a dead whale that was entangled off of the coast, the aquarium said Tuesday.
The carcass of a dead minke whale was first reported off the coast near Point Judith, R.I. Monday, according to a news release.
After officials with the Coast Guard and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management located the whale, they were able to take it to the shore, where a team from Mystic Aquarium and the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society assembled to perform a necropsy, the aquarium said.
Minke whales are the smallest species of baleen whales in North American waters, growing to 35 feet and weighing up to 20,000 pounds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
While they are not considered endangered or threatened, these whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
“The tragic loss of this animal is a sad but important reminder of the dire circumstances many cetaceans currently face,” Mystic Aquarium President
Stephen M. Coan said in a prepared statement. “The environment where these whales live is changing rapidly due to the impact of human activity and climate change.
“We must make every effort now to ensure a future for these incredible species,” he said.
Daniel Pesquera, a spokesman for the aquarium, said the rescue team included staff members and volunteers who retrieved samples of the gear the whale was found entangled in.
It will be analyzed by the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine a potential source, and whether the animal became entangled in the gear before or after it died, Pesquera said.
A total of 107 minke whales have been reported stranded along the Atlantic coast since 2007, according to NOAA. The majority of those were in Massachusetts and Maine, while none were reported in Connecticut.
The animal rescue program responds to an average of 150 calls each year along the coast of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Fishers Island, N.Y., according to the news release.
Anyone who finds a stranded or injured marine mammal or sea turtle is urged to call the 24-hour hotline at 860-572-5955 ext. 107.