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By Jennette’s Staff

Members of the Outer Banks Marine Mammal Stranding Network along with dozens of volunteers responded to a deceased juvenile humpback whale that washed up in Kitty Hawk on Dec. 27.

The beached whale near Bennett Street was originally reported on the stranding network hotline between 6 and 7 a.m. that Friday, Marina Doshkov said. She’s the marine mammal stranding coordinator for Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head.

The 27.5-foot-long female didn’t display any obvious external injuries or human interactions on the original examination, Doshkov said. In the end, however, it’s possible the animal was struck by a vessel, something scientists believe has contributed to an ongoing, larger, unusual mortality event, or UME.

Karen Clark, a longtime network partner, was one of the first responders on the scene. She took the basic measurements and photographs required to document the animal’s death and condition.

Historically, Clark covers the northern Outer Banks from Southern Shores through Carova. She also works as a community science specialist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

At this stage, the first responders look for signs of predation or human interactions such as scars and fresh wounds, Doshkov said.

She and Clark formulated a plan of action and then sent the word out to the group’s volunteers via a group text message. Town of Kitty Hawk employees were on scene early, too.

The police helped with crowd control and public works provided heavy equipment and operators to move the whale up higher on the beach.

Eventually, another key network member, park ranger Paul Doshkov, Marina’s husband, arrived with the chain and the anchors needed to secure the whale overnight until the necropsy could be performed Saturday morning. A necropsy is an animal autopsy.

Paul works as a ranger supervisory biological technician at Cape Hatteras National Seashore and was on duty that morning, Marina said.

“He first had to go to Rodanthe to check on a seal, then he came up, grabbed the equipment and met us up there [in Kitty Hawk],” Marina said.

Once the visual examinations of the whale were performed, they could proceed with wrapping the chain around the tail and pulling it up on the beach berm thanks to the town, Marina said.

To keep the crowds back, a visual perimeter of white fiberglass sticks was erected the same way they use them to “rope off” around seals, she added.

“For the most part, people were good,” Marina said.

Early the next morning, the town pulled the whale up even higher on the beach and close to 30 volunteers showed up along with Clark, Marina and Mike Remige, the director of Jennette’s Pier.

Marina led the necropsy and internal exam which was difficult and “smelly” because of the advanced decomposition of the whale, she said, a level 4 out of 5.

Remige said they found damaged tissue that could have been caused by a boat strike but it’s unknown if that happened while the humpback was alive or dead.

“Boats hit them if they are floating,” Marina said. “This whale had definitely been dead a long time.”

Inside the animal’s stomach, the scientists found dark sand, tiny fish bones and blue scallop shells that were possibly from the Caribbean, where whales winter.

Marina said its certainly possible this humpback had already made it to Caribbean waters but then died and drifted north in the Gulf Stream up to the Outer Banks.

During the necropsy, plenty of people were on the beach watching, Marina said. The volunteers who answered most of their questions were managed by Taylor McConnell, the volunteer coordinator at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

She prepared an informational sheet for them so they could share the most basic elements of the case such as the whale’s approximate age, sex and species.

After the humpback was moved, it was revealed that a shark or sharks had bitten the whale post-mortem, and the volunteers explained that, too.

They also shared the idea that the bones may be used for an exhibit in the area. Once the necropsy was complete, the team harvested the skeleton, which turned out to be a rough job, Marina said.

“We collected the skeleton whole for a school, Water’s Edge Village Charter School, a K – 8^th grade in Corolla,” she said. “The bones were transported in two trips and buried in Corolla.

“They’ll be exhumed in two years and then articulated back into the skeleton for an exhibit at the school,” Marina said. Clark’s two boys attend school there, she noted.

Meghan Agresto, board president of the Corolla Education Foundation, who also runs the nearby Currituck Beach Lighthouse complex, said they’ve dreamed of having a whale exhibit for educational purposes for a long time.

“We hope the exhibit will go into the boathouse for classes,” she said. “It’s been a dream for the school kids to work with Karen Clark and Keith Rittmaster on a project like this!”

Rittmaster, who operates the Bonehenge Whale Center in Beaufort, and is an expert at re-articulating skeletons. Two of his works can be seen in the pier house at Jennette’s Pier. He’s also the natural sciences curator at the North Carolina Maritime Museum.

All the information collected in the necropsy and the written report will go to NOAA. It takes many months for this information to be studied and evaluated, Marina said.

“The morphometrics and pathology samples take six months to a year,” she said. “Samples will be tested for biotoxins such as red tide.”

“The test results will then be added to the two hundred other cases with the working group,” Marina added. “They are working towards figuring out what’s happening with the whale deaths and UME.”

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