Whale Necropsy in Wilmington

Being home has presented me with many new opportunities. I have come full circle and am reunited with my friends in the local marine science community at NOAA and at the Cabrillo Aquarium. As such, last week I was notified that a large female humpback whale had been brought into the Port of Los Angeles on the bow of a container ship. Whether the ship was the cause or not remains unknown and preliminary visual examinations were inconclusive.

The entire day was spent working with students, NOAA personnel, and support staff from local marine mammal rehabilitation centers and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium with the necessary assistance of the LA City workers to get the carcass out of the water and as accessible as possible so that the necropsy and specimen collection could be performed. Conditions were less than optimal- the tide was too low, the channel through which the whale brought out of the water was too narrow, and we had about 5 or 6 hours to do everything. Not to mention, the whale was being dragged up and out by the fluke (tail) which, under immense tension, disconnected from the whale, posing a problem for towing the whale back out to sea.

Once the whale was out, we got to work on it. The first step was to relieve the pressure of gas in the visceral cavity, which at this point was quite bloated. This part is always fun. Carefully placed incisions must be made, and not too quickly so as to avoid a literal explosion of whale entrails. The overarching goal was to determine whether the death of the whale occurred before the ship-strike, or as a result of it. In order to do this, musculo-skeletal tissue samples were collected from both flanks of the whale. Assuming the whale was only hit on one side, that side should display damage. The specimens are then analyzed and compared to determine time of death. That is my oversimplified understanding of the process. Although occurrences like this seem to be unfortunately increasing in frequency, they are still relatively rare. As such the opportunity to collect other samples for research purposes was taken. We collected fecal, blubber, lice, and barnacle samples.

Aside from being over the top stinky, it was quite a fulfilling day. Made some new friends and got to reconnect with old. It was surprisingly a ton of work to do everything that needed to be done. It made me think of the old days when whaling was prevalent and a driver of society. They would be on ships for many months at a time and would process many whales every day.

On a different note, I will be starting the EFP project in San Diego that I had mentioned in my previous post this coming month, and I am very excited about it. I have already undergone my training, and it will be much more laid back than what I am used to. More play than work, really.