A dead humpback whale calf washed ashore near Douglas Harbor in Juneau over the weekend. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials completed a necropsy, but don’t yet know how it died.
The dead whale drew a somber crowd Saturday as officials collected the animal.
Frank Lynn Pierce was one of the onlookers. He’s a local photographer who’s lived in Juneau for nearly 50 years. He said it’s odd to see humpbacks in Gastineau Channel.
“I’ve been documenting this unusual situation,” he said with his camera in hand. “I’ve never seen a whale in this area before, let alone a dead one.”
As the tide came in, Pierce snapped pictures of the bloated male calf. It was upside down, bobbing partially out of the water.
Julian Caballero was also among the crowd watching.
“It wasn’t even that bloated a couple hours ago, so it must be pretty fresh,” he said.
He said it’s sad to see such a young whale dead. He saw NOAA researchers tie a buoy to the body, and then a U.S. Coast Guard boat towed it through the channel to an area where researchers could do a necropsy.
The NOAA Fisheries Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network completed the examination on Sunday. But Jennifer Angelo, a communications manager for NOAA Fisheries, said the tissue samples that help determine the cause of death can take months to analyze in a laboratory.