Dead whale finishes travels in Canada
June 1, 2011 · 9:39 AM
Some whales apparently travel as far dead as they do alive, according to reports compiled by the local Orca Network sea mammal-monitoring organization.
A dead gray whale spotted this weekend in Becher Bay in British Columbia is probably the same one spotted floating off South Whidbey earlier this month, Susan Berta of Orca Network said Monday.
She said the carcass was reported about 200 feet offshore south of Coupeville on May 18. On May 21, a pilot reported a sighting off Port Angeles, with another sighting in the same general area on May 26.
By the weekend, it apparently had floated into Canadian waters, Berta said.
“I don’t think it ever made landfall,” she said.
Berta said confusing reports made identification of the whale difficult; one report turned out to be a large piece of driftwood, another a dead sea lion.
“For a while, we weren’t sure, but now we’re pretty sure it was the same dead whale,” she said. “Now it’s so decomposed, we can’t be totally sure of the species, but we’re pretty sure it’s a gray whale, which would be normal for this time of year.”
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