A killer whale stranded itself Wednesday and died on a beach in Palm Coast, Florida.
Messod Bendayan, public affairs officer for the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, said removing the 21-foot, approximately 5,000-pound mammal from the beach “took quite an effort.”
“It required a few Bobcats and some other specialized equipment,” Bendavan told The Epoch Times, adding that the female orca was removed from the beach and taken to the SeaWorld facility in Orlando, where a necropsy was performed to investigate the cause of death.“There was nothing obvious on the body to indicate why she died,' Bendavan said. He believes the animal may have been alive when it initially beached itself, but ”only briefly.” Unfortunately, he said the whale died soon after rescue team members arrived in an effort to save her.
Blair Mase-Gutherie, Marine Mammals Stranding Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Southeast region, confirmed that the whale was a geriatric female and died as a result of illness.
‘A Particularly Unique Event’
The Epoch Times spoke with Erin Fougères, Marine Mammal Stranding Program Administrator for NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Regional Office. Fougères said the operation was “a large, multi-agency response.”“We pulled out all the stops and brought in as many partners as we could in response,” Fougères said, saying that the agency wants to make sure it learns as much as possible from the stranding.
“We had partners in the Southeast Region Stranding Network, such as Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, Flagler County law enforcement, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Blue World Research Institute,” she said.
Southeast Regional Office, performs a hearing test on a dolphin. (Courtesy of Erin Fougères)
While killer whales are often associated with the Pacific Northwest, she explained that there are two stocks—or identified populations—in the waters around Florida: the Western North Atlantic stock and the Northern Gulf of Mexico stock.
However, she said it is rare to find the giant mammals in U.S. waters, as they are typically found much farther offshore.
A ‘Very Unique Opportunity’
“We know they’re out there,” she said. “But to have a killer whale strand [itself] is a very unique event.”National Geographic describes the killer whale, also known as an orca, as “the largest of the dolphins and one of the world’s most powerful predators.” Weighing up to six tons, orcas range in size between 23 to 32 feet and can live between 50 to 80 years in the wild. They travel and hunt in pods that number up to 40 individuals and are considered to be at the top of the food chain.
While the event was “very sad” because the whale could not be saved, Fougères said it presents an opportunity.
“There are few specimens that have stranded in the Atlantic,” she noted, “so there is a lot of interest in learning as much as we can about this individual animal, to help us know more about the species and to do comparisons with killer whales that may be threatened or endangered on the west coast or in Alaska. Although it is a sad event, we are hopeful we will be able to learn as much as we can from this whale to help us better understand killer whale populations throughout the United States.”
NOAA’s Mase-Gutherie said the orca’s skeleton will ultimately be on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
First, however, the orca’s remains will be taken to the University of Florida, where it will be buried. After the natural process of decomposition strips the whale bones of any remaining tissue, it will be excavated.
