Minke whale carcass washes ashore

Published 8:54 am Wednesday, May 31, 2017

KLIPSAN BEACH — A deceased Minke whale washed ashore midway up the Peninsula over Memorial Day weekend. A team from Portland State University and the Seaside Aquarium planned to preform a necropsy this Wednesday to determine the whale’s cause of death and state of health before dying.

The 20-foot whale generated plenty of attention from the large crowd of visitors at the beach Sunday morning, with many posting photos on social media.

“The whale had died long before washing in and had been drifting out at sea for some time,” the Seaside Aquairum said on its Facebook page. “Long enough in fact, that due to decomposition, gases started to build up inside of the animal. Once the animal hit the beach the pressure from the gases, combined with the immense weight of the animal, pushed its diaphragm outside of its mouth (this is what you are seeing in the photographs).”

Minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) are a plentiful worldwide species, according to the guidebook “Whales, Dolphins & Porpoises,” with a total population of perhaps 1 million. Elsewhere in the world, they were the last baleen, or filter-feeding, whale still regularly hunted by commercial whalers up until at least 2006; the current status of hunting is unknown.