Officials removed the humpback whale carcass found off Harpswell from the water on Wednesday afternoon, after it had potentially been floating along the Maine coast for more than a week and a half.
The whale was spotted off the Cribstone Bridge connecting Orr’s Island and Bailey’s Island on Monday. Officials with the U.S. Coast Guard had likely seen the same carcass drifting off the coast on June 11, according to Andrea Gomez, spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
NOAA assisted town officials to remove the whale carcass on Wednesday around 1:30 p.m., two hours before high tide, according to a spokesperson for the town. It was taken to a composting site in Litchfield, where it will be buried on land.
Due to the amount of decomposition on the whale, a necropsy is unlikely to be completed, Gomez said.
This is the second humpback whale carcass found in Maine this month. The other was found June 6 off Cape Elizabeth entangled in fishing gear. A necropsy determined that one likely drowned.
Since 2016, NOAA has been investigating an unusually high number of deaths of humpback whales in the North Atlantic, Gomez said. The agency is also investigating high numbers of deaths of North Atlantic right whales, which are endangered.
Gomez noted anyone who sees a marine mammal should maintain a safe distance, in part because entangled large whales may act unpredictably.
All stranded or entangled marine mammals can be reported to NOAA’s marine mammal and sea turtle stranding hotline at 866-755-6622.
