At Tacoma’s Commencement Bay, a fin whale was found dead, yet alive when it was struck by a ship going to the Port of Tacoma.
In the image above, the variety of colors on the whale carcass show the beginning stages of decomposition, skin peeling, and bruising from the vessel strike. Whales have senstitive skin, which reacts to the sunlight and starts to peel. The peeling reveals the pink, white and yellowish colors underneath the skin.
As for decompisition, the gas build up and chemical changes in the carcass cause the skin to turn creamish white. Similarly, the vessel strike caused the injury site on the whale’s body bleed out and swell up. There could be exposing red tissues where the skin was torn by the vessel’s bow.
The report of a dead whale first came in on August 24th at around 5 am. The whale’s carcass was saved to protect port operations. The remains were sent to the waters off McNeil Island, where it can be naturally decomposed.
John Calambokidis, the founder of Cascadia Research, stated that the ship that crashed into the whale was said to have been traveling from China. This meant that the interaction between the vessel and whale could have happened somewhere along the long voyage.
A vessel strike happens when ships or other vessels crash into whales, which can injure or kill them. In certain cases, a whale can be caught on a large ship bow and dragged to its destination port. This can sometimes go unoticed by vessel crews.
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Fin whale was alive when struck, killed by vessel heading to Port of Tacoma, experts say