Cetaceous stranger washes up in Puget Sound

by GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News
Posted on January 19, 2010

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. - Biologists responding to a report of a whale carcass in Case Inlet in Puget Sound suddenly have a mystery on their hands.

Why would a whale that is normally found only in warm and tropical waters venture into the frigid Northern Pacific?

It will take DNA testing to determine if the carcass is indeed a Bryde's Whale. The dead whale was spotted this week after several reports of a mysterious living whale swimming through the area over the last few weeks.

Cascadia Research teams conducted a necropsy on the mammal on Tuesday and hope to have preliminary results of its possible cause of death soon.

Lead Biologist John Calambokidis told KING 5 it does not appear the creature was struck in the ocean and pushed into Puget Sound on the bow of a ship.

If it is indeed a Bryde's whale, it would be considered very odd that a whale that prefers tropical waters would venture into the frigid seas of the Northern Pacific and Puget Sound.

Tour captain and naturalist Rod Dufour has spent his life sailing and identifying mammals of the Pacific. He says if biologists are correct, this whale is way out of its warm water comfort zone.

"They generally spend their time in the lower latitude and just get up to the temperate waters, from the equator up to about 35 degrees North," he said.

This whale was found 12 degrees above that in the icy waters of the 47th parallel.

But is it indeed a Bryde's whale?

Normally, as in the case of a gray whale that washed up last year, biologists know what it is long before they investigate the carcass. The problem with a Bryde's whale is it looks like so many others, making it one of most mysterious of all whales.

"And I think a lot of it is misidentification, they look a lot like a sei whale, a fin whale," said Dufour.

If biologists can confirm this is Bryde's, only then can they dig into the deeper question of what it's doing here.

See video at: http://www.nwcn.com/news/washington/Cetaceous-Stranger-Washes-Up-in-Puget-Sound--82103912.html
(Submitted by Dale Drinnon)