OCEAN CITY — National Aquarium staffers on Monday conducted a necropsy on the juvenile sperm whale that washed ashore around 112th Street on Sunday morning in an effort to determine what caused its demise.
On Sunday morning, a juvenile sperm whale came ashore in the area of 112th Street. Onlookers gathered around the distressed whale and several attempted to push in back into the sea to no avail. Members of the National Aquarium’s animal rescue team and staffers from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) responded to assess the whale’s health and formulate a plan for its potential rescue.
Sadly, after being beached for several hours, the juvenile sperm whale died on Sunday afternoon. Ocean City Public Works Department staffers removed the deceased whale from the beach with a front-end loader with a fork attachment and it was loaded into a roll-off container.
The deceased whale was taken to the town’s public works facilities at 65th Street where National Aquarium and DNR staffers began a necropsy on Monday. National Aquarium spokesperson Jennifer Reardon said on Monday investigators collected tissue samples to assess what could have caused the whale’s demise, although it would take weeks or even months to determine the cause.
National Aquarium staffers reported on Tuesday the deceased whale had been buried. However, the National Aquarium is not disclosing where the burial took place.
