OUTER BANKS, N.C. (WAVY) — They’re shocking numbers.
Officials with NOAA told 10 On Your Side four whales have been found stranded along the Outer Banks from March 5 through March 9, making it six whale strandings in total, including the two that washed up in Virginia Beach.
However, Blair Mase, NOAA Southeast Region Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator, said the worst of the worst may be over.
“So, we were a little bit concerned when these strandings started to occur in that short period of time from March 5 through March 9 that we could be on the verge of something,” Mase said. “But we’re fortunate that since the 9th, the strandings have gone down, but we’re still on high alert.”
She told 10 On Your Side on March 5 that a minke whale washed up near Corolla.
Then on that same day, a humpback whale was spotted by an aerial surveillance team getting close to the shore, appearing to be dead. It drifted back to sea, however, and hasn’t been seen since.
Just three days later, a pregnant dwarf sperm whale washed up in the Nags Head area.
And again, that same day, a dwarf sperm whale calf, believed to be an offspring of the aforementioned pregnant whale, washed up just a few miles away.
“One of the whales, the calf the older calf, did show some heavy parasite load, but I haven’t received the results yet from those necropsies,” Mase said.
She reiterated that preliminary findings showed signs of infectious disease in the minke whale.
In addition to the whales, two dolphins also washed up along the Outer Banks.
“No signs of entanglement,” Mase said. “I know that one of the animals came back with signs or evidence of infectious disease, so of the six we’ve seen, two come that have shown some infectious disease processes going on.”
She also pointed out that humpbacks and minke whales have been in unusual mortality events since 2016 and 2017.
She said necropsies showed 40% of those humpback whales died from human or vessel interaction.
She also added that a majority of the minke whales died from infectious diseases.
