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Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781)

J. G. Mead

Megaptera novaeangliae 856 cm male JGM 111 USNM 484991 Monday 3 December 1973 I learned of the stranding about 15:00, while I was at the US-USSR meetings. Finally got over to the SI about 18:30. CWP had most of the gear together. We finally cleared home about 22:00. CWP, Sandy Husar and myself in the truck, Mac, Nancy Orem, RLB and Cathy Ralls in Mac's car. Tuesday 4 December 1973 Pulled into Nags Head ~ 05:00. Mac was supposed to have a motel room. Found him and his crew asleep in the car in the motel lot. We bagged along a street for a couple of hours, breaakfasted, got fresh directions from Griggs Oneal of the Currituck County sheriff's office. Drove out to the whale, which was located about 5 miles south of Curittuck (Corolla) Light. Found it to be a 28' hump, still alive. Unloaded the gear and put Nancy to work pouring water on it. Sent Mac back into town to call NMFS and various other people. Plan is to obtain some nembutal and euthanize the animal, as it is in bad shape. Considerable skin loss, several cuts posterior to blowhole (made by knife), heavy rope burns and cuts on tail, baleen plates loose from palate on left side, probably right side as well. Is having trouble breathing (see times recorded by S. Husar). Breath smells bad. The skin is cracked around the eye and there is a greaat deal of mucous being secreted by the eyes. There eyes are moving back and forth in a horizontal plane, but they do not seem to follow objects. The animal closes his eyes when he is touched. He still has strength enough to lift the tail, which he does when disturbed. He has also opened his mouh several times. Shot rolls JM 268, 269. RLB shot numerous photos. Mac returned with word that Dan Cowan was coming down and would try to ring nembutal, dry ice, etc. CWP talked to Shirley Austin, from Corolla, who said the whale had been caught in a beach seine at about 15:00-16:00 hrs on 30 XI, had come ashore about 17:00 hrs. It may have been in the area on the afternoon of 29 XI or at least the morning of 30 XI. Discovered that the postman from Corolla, as well as a numbers of others who drive this beach every day. Griggs Oneal, the deputy sheriff, told us of an old Tursiops carcass (JGM 113, 484993) about a mile south of the hump. We picked it up and worked up the external measurements and collected the flippers. Earlier in the day a couple of fishermen had told us of another Tursiops down near Oregon Inlet, which we have yet to check on. Set up Charley's tent, lights and generator. Cowan showed up after dark and managed to et blood from an interosseous vessel in the flipper and a deep artery on the flukes. The latter was most successful, but was located only after considerable probing. Cowan had not managed to locate either dry ice or nembutal. He only had his blood gear. He left about 23:00. About 23:00 the animal began to thrash around, opening his mouth and beating his flukes on the sand. We gave up and went to bed. I suspect it died shortly thereafter. Wednesday 4 December 1973 Arose early and found the whale dead. Tried to roll it over [it was dorsal side up] with no success. Tried to pull it sideways out of the sand by the tail, with a 2 part purchase and only succeeded in breaking the 5/16 chain which we were using. Stripped off the dorsal muscle, then cut off the head and flippers and managed to pull the rest of the carcass out. We didn't get at the viscera until about noon. We now have CWP, Mac and Sandy as crew. Worked all afternoon on the carcass and went into town for dinner and gas. Elected to stay in a motel and put Sandy on the 06:00 bus to Norfolk. Thursday 5 December 1973 Up early and off to look for the Tursiops by Oregon Inlet. After a couple of hours we found it. It was a young male (JGM 112; USNM 484992), which had probably come from a group entangled in a beach seine last week. Stopped at a motel east of the town hall in Bags Head to look at a whale skull which turned out to be the finback that Mac et al. Had worked up in the spring of 1972 [USNM 483161]. Became acquainted with it's current owner, one M. O. Clark, who owns the motel and is something of a character. He told us of the Tursiops which had been entangled in the seine. He said they usually jumped the corkline, but these had not. There were 8-10 animals. Went back out to the whale and finished flensing and labeling it after dark. Returned to find the gas stations all closed. Drove around for a while and finally had a flat tire. Put up in a motel and drove back to DC the next day (Friday). Miscellaneous observations: The fisherman who got the whale in his net on Friday, was probably a man named Scarborough from Duck, NC. The Division of Commercial Fisheries agents who showed up on Tuesday were W. C. Biggs and A. L. Daniel. On Tuesday 3 XII, about 13:30 we spotted a group of about 70 Tursiops headed south about 100 yards offshore. Saw a few Tursiops nearly every day.

Date

30 Nov 1973

Medium

856 cm

Department

NMNHMAMMALS

Institution

NMNH - Vertebrate Zoology - Mammals Division

Object number

nmnhvz_7508460