The lifeless body of a juvenile humpback whale was found off the coast of Virginia Sunday, sparking an investigation into its cause of death.
The region’s stranding response was called to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront on Sunday morning after beachgoers saw the huge marine mammal about three miles from shore.
The whale was a male, anywhere from four to 10 years old and up to 32 feet long.
Teams have since pulled the whale out of the water and are expected to perform a necropsy on Monday, which will see it split from mouth to tail and samples removed for analysis.
While the dead whale is a mystery, such incidents can occur due to being tangled in fishing nets and vessel strikes – but some locals believe off shore wind companies are to blame.
The juvenile male, between four and 10 years old, was spotted about three miles off the coast of Virginia Beach
Beachgoers spotted the dead whale in the ocean on Sunday morning and immediately called officials to the sence
Virginia Aquarium’s Stranding Response arrived at the beach with heavy machinery to pull the giant whale out of the water and drag its corpse onto the beach.
Sharif Young, a Chesapeake resident, was heading to the Oceanfront on Sunday to ride his longboard when he spotted the whale.
He told 13NewsNow: ‘I just see this giant conglomeration of people coming over, so I was like ‘What’s going on?
‘I see this little like wavy thing, and I was like ‘Is that a whale?’ So, I just came on down and there was a whale.’
The Mid-Atlantic Whale Monitoring Project shared the news of the dead whale on Facebook, noting the group had previously spotted the animal alive on February 15 and 18.
Teams have since pulled the whale out of the water and are expected to perform a necropsy on Monday, which will see it split from mouth to tail and samples removed for analysis
At the time, the project shared images of the juvenile male, noting it appeared to have an unusual skin condition.
It is not known if the skin condition contributed to its death.
Humpback whales are making their way to the Caribbean over the winter to breed.
Nearly all those seen near Virginia are juveniles because they are too young to breed and stay in the region until late March – they then head further up north as the weather warms.
There have been several reported dead whales in the area over the past few years, sparking concern among locals who have claimed offshore wind farms are to blame.
More than 200 humpbacks have died along the East Coast since 2016 – 31 near Virginia.
The Mid-Atlantic Whale Monitoring Project shared the news of the dead whale on Facebook, noting the group had previously spotted the animal alive on February 15 and 18
Dominion Energy is the company surveying the surrounding waters, which has led to some conservation groups threatening to sue the federal government in fear the offshore wind company is to blame.
The groups have claimed that sonar blasting from an offshore wind company to map the seafloor is to blame as the technology has been suggested to disrupt animals’ movements, sending them into boats or onto the shore.
Evidence has shown that when exposed to high sonar frequencies, marine mammals swim hundreds of miles and rapidly change their depth.
However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other scientists have said there is no evidence linking the marine animal deaths to offshore wind farms.
