Late back in April, a Humpback whale washed up on one of Newport, Rhode Island's private beaches. Tons of town locals, as well as people from out of town, headed over to Hazard's Beach to be witnesses to this sad sight, while paying their respects to the majestic creature. It was quite a depressing sight to see one of the ocean's most powerful, yet peaceful, animals succumb to the coastline. However, what made this situation even more heart-wrenching was the fact that this poor majestic marine mammal was but a year old.
After a conference, which took place amongst several agencies, the decision was made that the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management would deal with the disposal of this poor animal's carcass. RIDEM employed a 30-foot rigid hull inflatable patrol vessel and a 46-foot offshore research trawl boat to tow the body out to sea. The ordeal took close to 4 hours.
Following the removal of the baby whale's body, I became quite confused. Upon hearing about said removal plan, I began to question how exactly marine scientists were to do an autopsy on a body that had been dragged out to sea and released to sink to the infinite depths of the ocean. I paid close attention to the news reports for the next few months, anxiously awaiting the release of a cause of death. However, this never came.
It is very curious, to me, how an incident of this magnitude can merely be swept under the rug so easily. Especially when one considers the fact that this was not the first occurrence of a beached Humpback whale in Rhode Island waters. Just a month prior, another young Humpback whale was found dead on Crescent Beach of Block Island, Rhode Island. Only 2 days after the incident in Newport, yet another Humpback, between the ages of 1 and 2 years old, was found dead on the beach of Duxbury, Massachusetts. No official causes of death were published for any of these instances.
The fact of the matter is simple: what is going on is not okay. Although the International Union for Conservation of Nature upgraded the Humpback species' endangerment status from "vulnerable" to "least concern" in 2008 (https://www.iucn.org/content/humpback-whale-road-r...), there is no promise being held that this will remain. Marine biologists are expected to have the availability to study oceanic species, and their environment, as conditions change. A lot can happen over 8 years; and, simply removing a whale carcass from a situation gives zero insight on the issue of rising casualties in a distinct area.