A state biologist said Wednesday it may be months before researchers have an idea why a pygmy sperm whale washed ashore on Tybee Island this week.
Biologist Clay George of the state Department of Natural Resources in Brunswick said the diminutive whale was alive when beach goers found it Sunday but seemed to be ill. The whale had little chance of surviving and was euthanized, he said.
The whale appeared to be a juvenile female, about 7 feet 10 inches long. The cause of illness could be linked to naturally occurring bio toxins in the water, George said, but researchers aren’t sure, and a necropsy is being conducted.
“Results will take months to get back,” George said. “In most cases, we don’t get anything conclusive. Quite often the cause of death goes down as undetermined.”
That’s partly because little is known about the pygmy sperm whale, which is rarely seen at sea. Researchers are also at a loss on how to care for it when it is found stranded.
“No one has figured out how to replicate their habitat,” George said. “They tend to die very shortly after being put into rehabilitation.”
Emmitt Kelly of Covington happened to be on the beach Sunday when he noticed a crowd and went over to see the commotion.
“I’d never seen a real live whale before except on TV,” Kelly told the AJC on Wednesday. “I thought it was dead when I got there, but all of a sudden it started trying to thrash around and breath. This was a sad situation.”
Kelly said rescuers were waiting for the whale to be euthanized. He said he didn’t stick around for that to happen.
He also noticed porpoises in the distance. “They knew something was up.”
The pygmy sperm whale and its close cousin, the dwarf sperm whale, belong to a species that is the second-most commonly stranded marine mammal in Georgia and the Southeast. Over the last decade, the state has averaged finding about four of the sperm whales in distress a year.
The whale found Sunday on Tybee Island was already the fourth pygmy found this year. Two were found on Cumberland Island in February and May, and one on Blackbeard Island earlier this month, George said. No dwarf sperm whales have been found this year.
The most commonly stranded marine mammal in Georgia is the bottle nose dolphin, and the state gets 20 to 30 such reports a year, George said.
Volunteers from the Savannah State University and workers from the Tybee Island Public Works department cared for the pygmy found Sunday until experts from DNR and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center reached the island.
“We have more questions than answers,” George said. “If there is any solace, we were able to collect a number of samples that can be sent to various labs for research.”
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