THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140391
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OREGON INLET LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Cold water and air are preserving the 40-foot fin whale that died near this Outer Banks inlet, keeping it from floating and preventing its removal from the shallow Pamlico Sound.
On Tuesday, the 40-ton whale Coast Guardsmen dubbed ``Freddy'' was in the same spot and in almost the same condition it was in when it died five days ago on a sandbar about 2.5 miles west of the Oregon Inlet bridge.
``It's colder than a refrigerator out there - 35 degrees right now,'' National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman Bill McLellan said after visiting Freddy's carcass by boat. ``It's not decomposing. Nor is it really filling with gas. Its condition hasn't really changed at all. And we've got at least two more days of cold coming.
``So we're in a holding pattern right now,'' said McLellan, who oversees the fisheries service's Large Whale Mortality Program. ``We can't do anything about towing it until it starts to bloat and float on its own. If we tried to move it now, it would just sink and stick solid to the bottom. It could even get dropped in the channel if something happened. And we don't want to take that risk.''McLellan has been working with stranded whales for 12 years and has dealt with more than 50 large ones during that time. He said Freddy is one of his most unusual cases because the whale was alive when it got stuck on the sandbar in about three feet of water Feb. 5 and because it has taken so long for the animal to begin to fill with gas after it died.
``We've never been presented with this lengthy a process before. It surprises me that this animal isn't awash yet,'' McLellan said. ``This has become a national event - with the head of the National Marine Fisheries Service even getting involved. But all we can do for now is wait.''
On Tuesday, McLellan and Currituck County High School marine biology teacher David Wojnowski rode with a Coast Guard crew in a small boat to check on the whale's body, which is about 150 yards outside the deep channel. The scientists waded through thigh-deep waves and took four blubber samples from Freddy - who was almost completely submerged belly up in three feet of brackish water. Each piece of blubber was 10-by-10 inches and ranged from one to two inches thick.
The most definitive thing McLellan said he determined Tuesday was that Freddy was, indeed, a male whale - probably about four years old.
``We're making the best of the situation that we can,'' said McLellan, who plans to send the blubber samples to the fisheries service's National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. ``A complete necropsy (animal autopsy) would take from six to 10 hours. And we just can't stand out there in that cold water and get what we need from the whale. Besides, we can't slit open its stomach or it won't float.
``The blubber samples we took - from in front of the dorsal fin, at the flipper, at the belly button and in front of the flukes (tail fins) - should show us what contaminants were in that whale. Petroleum-based pollutants and other non-organic materials in the blubber could lead to surpression of immunities,'' McLellan said. ``But right now, we have no idea why this animal hit the beach.''
To perform a complete study on Freddy, McLellan hopes to have a Coast Guard crew tow the whale by the tail to the Navy's Dam Neck training center in Virginia Beach. The 80-mile trip would be impossible unless the carcass floats on its own, said the scientist. Navy officials said they'll welcome the whale.
``There's a big push to get a necropsy on this animal. And Dam Neck is the only place that has the equipment to allow us to do that. So it looks pretty positive for Dam Neck right now,'' said McLellan.
``The Coast Guard has given 150 percent on this. They've given us everything we need as soon as we ask. We can lash a line around the animal's tail. Then, when they tow it, it'll hold the whole way.
``It's not like towing it straight off a beach into the ocean. They'll have to go through three miles of narrow channels just to get it out to sea. Parts of that inlet dog-leg, too, twisting at pretty sharp angles. It'll be a tough trip even after the animal begins to float.''
After the whale is examined, McLellan said, the Coast Guard probably will tow it offshore, cut the line and bury it at sea.
Fin whales can live up to 50 years. Because Freddy was so young, the scientist said, this was probably the first year he was away from his mother. That may help explain how the young whale swam so far away from the deeper waters of the Atlantic - and into such shallow shoals.
``There was no sign of fishing gear on the whale. No evidence of boat strikes or anything that would've caused an unnatural death,'' McLellan said. ``That's one reason we really want to examine it.'' by CNB