A young female humpback whale, measuring 27 feet and weighing approximately 19,000 pounds, washed ashore near the Bennett Street beach access point in Kitty Hawk on Friday. The discovery has prompted marine biologists to perform a necropsy, conducted Saturday morning, as experts aim to uncover the cause of the whale’s death.
Juvenile humpback whales, such as this one, are known to linger offshore in the Mid-Atlantic region during their southward winter migration. According to NOAA, strandings among this age group are not unusual. “The humpback whales are currently migrating south for the winter, and the juveniles typically hang offshore in the Mid-Atlantic, so it’s not uncommon to have strandings of this age class or at all,” NOAA officials explained.
This particular case marks a troubling trend. NOAA has reported nine dead whales along the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia this year, five of which were humpbacks.
