MIDDLETOWN, NJ – On October 19, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) spearheaded a collaborative effort to extricate a deceased Minke whale from Leonardo State Marina’s bulkhead. Assisted by the New Jersey State Park Service Marina staff and Middletown Township Dive Team, the team successfully relocated the whale carcass to a nearby shore for a thorough examination.
The necropsy, completed by 7:00pm, involved the expertise of staff from Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, Sea Turtle Recovery, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, alongside the MMSC personnel. The postmortem revealed the whale to be a sub-adult male, measuring 18 feet 7 inches.
Preliminary findings indicated a bloody froth in the lungs and signs of infectious disease in several organs, with an empty gastrointestinal tract suggesting a lack of recent food intake. Tissue samples were collected for further histopathologic analysis.
The whale was later interred nearby, with the Middletown Township Department of Public Works and the New Jersey State Parks Service facilitating the burial. The MMSC has announced that detailed findings will be shared on their website once the histopathologic analysis is concluded, keeping the community informed on the comprehensive examination of this marine life incident.