The 17,000-pound sei whale caught on a cargo ship in the Patapsco River Monday died when the ship hit it, scientists said Wednesday.
“There were fractures of the ribs and vertebras and extensive hemorrhage,” said Cindy Driscoll, director of fish and wildlife health program at the Maryland Department of Human Resources.
Scientists from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the National Marine Fisheries Service collected data Tuesday, and the major part of the whale?s carcass was disposed of in the Quarantine Road Landfill. Smithsonian scientists were continued studying the whale?s skeleton Wednesday.
Preliminary research revealed that the whale was hit by the 800-foot cargo ship MSC Johannesburg in the Atlantic Ocean and dragged into the Chesapeake Bay, which explains how it wound up so close to the coast. Sei whales are usually found deep in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Marine scientists believe there are about 50,000 to 60,000 sei whales in the world, said Jenny Yates, spokeswoman for the Baltimore National Aquarium.
Ship strikesand equipment entanglements are common killers of whales, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Researchers will use data collected Tuesday and Wednesday to learn more about sei whales. Biological samples were sent Tuesday night to a pathologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service
“Although it is [a] very sad instance, it?s an opportunity for us to learn about an animal that?s very poorly understood at this point,” Yates said.
Yates said the sei whale, which is the least known of its family, is extremely difficult to identify.
Scientists said the opportunity to study a mammal so close to its death was a good one for researchers.
“We don?t have a lot of information from large whales that present themselves fresh,” Driscoll said, “This is extremely valuable.”
Janet Whaley, a veterinarian with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said scientists would use data to find out information about the age of the sei whale and what can be done to prevent death by ship strikes in the future.
“It can take up to months to analyze data,” she said.
