BURST
Two dead grey whales have washed up off the B.C. coast in the past week, leading to recovery efforts and investigations to find out what happened to them.
Lara Sloan, a spokeswoman for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), said the first whale was reported last Tuesday, May 6, at Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park near Tofino. Parks Canada advised people at the time not to touch or disturb the whale.
A marine mammal response team along with Parks Canada and the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation co-ordinated plans to secure the animal and perform a necropsy.
Then on Sunday, May 11, another report of a dead grey whale came in from Haida Gwaii near Skidegate. The marine mammal team is working with local First Nations there to set up a necropsy to determine its cause of death.
Sloan said the DFO won’t be able to confirm cause of death for either whale until the necropsies are finished and final reports are done, which usually takes two to three months.
“Where possible, DFO’s marine mammal response team works with partners to recover biological samples and conduct necropsies on dead whales to further our understanding of the populations and the causes of death,” said Sloan.
The necropsies are done in a partnership with the B.C. government, a member of the B.C. Marine Mammal Response Network .
There are three grey whale populations in Canada’s North Pacific Ocean. An assessment in 2017 by a committee on at-risk wildlife identified two of the three as endangered.
So far, the DFO has not been able to confirm which of the three grey whale groups the two latest specimens are from.
The DFO asks members of the public to call its reporting hotline at 1-800-465-4336 or send an email to report when whales are being harassed or disturbed, been involved in a collision or have become entangled. Mariners unable to reach the hotline can call the Canadian Coast Guard marine mammal desk at 1-833-339-1020 or report it on marine radio.