Dead whale in New Jersey had a fractured skull among numerous injuries, experts find
A post-mortem examination of a whale that washed ashore on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island shows the animal sustained numerous blunt force injuries including a fractured skull and vertebrae
LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A post-mortem examination of a whale that washed ashore on New Jersey's Long Beach Island found that the animal had sustained numerous blunt force injuries including a fractured skull and vertebrae.
The Marine Mammal Stranding Center on Friday released observations from a necropsy done Thursday evening on the nearly 25-foot (7.6-meter) juvenile male humpback whale that was found dead in Long Beach Township.
Sheila Dean, director of the center, said the whale was found to have bruising around the head; multiple fractures of the skull and cervical vertebrae; numerous dislocated ribs, and a dislocated shoulder bone.
“These injuries are consistent with blunt force trauma,” she wrote in a posting on the group's Facebook page.
Reached afterward, Dean would not attribute the injuries to any particular cause, noting that extensive testing as part of the necropsy remains to be done, with tissue samples sent to laboratories across the country.
“We only report what we see,” she said.
The animal's cause of death is of intense interest to many amid an ongoing controversy involving a belief by opponents of offshore wind power that site preparation work for the projects is harming or killing whales along the U.S. East Coast.
Numerous scientific agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Marine Mammal Commission; the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, say there is no evidence linking offshore wind preparation to whale deaths.
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