DELAWARE SEASHORE STATE PARK, Del. — A 14-ton humpback whale has been buried in the sand after washing ashore at Conquest Road in Delaware Seashore State Park March 12, drawing both awe and sadness from onlookers.
David Liemer, who saw the whale in its first moments ashore, described the scene as both “majestic” and tragic.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” said Liemer. “It was basically a big white blob. Then as it got closer, you could see there were black stripes, like a big round belly almost.”
Photos from the scene show a large, swollen protrusion on the carcass, which the Marine Education, Research & Rehabilitation Institute says is the whale’s tongue, bloated from gases that build up in the stomach after death.
Dead humpback whale washed ashore with swollen tongue.
MERR responded to the stranding, along with DNREC. Suzanne Thurman, MERR’s Executive Director, said tissue samples are being collected to help determine the cause of death.
“Sometimes we can detect the presence of illness, disease, or parasites that are visible to the eye,” said Thurman. “Most of the time, it has to do with disease pathology. We’ll be really interested to see what happened—or did she get separated from her mother?”
MERR confirmed that the whale was a juvenile female, likely less than a year old. MERR also confirmed the whale was 30 feet 10 inches long, slightly shorter than the originally estimated 35 feet.
For some who saw the massive whale up close, it was an unforgettable sight.
“You’re used to seeing shells and seagulls, maybe a seal or a dolphin in the water,” Liemer said. “To see something that huge and that majestic—it’s really unbelievable.”
MERR crews worked throughout the day on March 13 to perform a necropsy on the whale to try and determine the cause of death, though there were no obvious signs. Machinery on the scene worked to dig up sand to bury the body.
Thurman says burying a dead whale helps the ecosystem and allows other organisms to feed on it.