Alaska News

No answers to what killed large whale spotted in Knik Arm

A 60-foot dead whale first seen in Knik Arm last month was still floating in the area more than three weeks later despite one effort to secure it.

Chris Garner, a biologist with Joint-Base Elmendorf Richardson, said he tied one end of a rope around the fin of the large, dead whale found in Knik Arm and anchored the other end with a huge boulder just south of Eagle Bay.

"The whale was extremely large so we didn't expect it to hold," Garner said, but it was the only rope they had. The line remained tied for a couple of days while scientists waited out bad weather. Eventually, the line broke and the whale floated away into the upper Cook Inlet, taking with it researchers' hopes of figuring out what had led to its death.

Then on Monday, a pilot spotted the massive whale again. This time it was floating on the northwest side of the upper Knik Arm. However, there was no way to secure the animal. It was still floating Friday and the cause of its death remains unknown, Garner said.

The report of the dead whale -- likely an endangered fin whale -- follows a mysterious die-off of large whales in the Gulf of Alaska this summer. What led to those deaths is largely up for speculation, because many of the animals had started to decompose by the time scientists found them, throwing off test results, said Aleria Jensen, regional stranding coordinator with NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.

Possible suspects in the deaths include unusually warm waters and a harmful algal bloom that emerged in waters from Alaska to California, researchers have said.

The most recent whale death brings this year's total count of dead, large whales found in the western Gulf of Alaska to 42, compared to just five last year, said Barbara Mahoney, a biologist with NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. The 42 whales found dead include 12 fin whales, 21 humpbacks, two gray whales and seven unidentified whales, she said.

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Mahoney said it's uncommon to find a large whale in the upper Cook Inlet. The recent die-off of whales was concentrated in the Kodiak area.

Scientists on Tuesday took a boat out and confirmed that the whale was the same as the one seen last month, Garner said. Mahoney said if the whale reaches a beach again, they will perform a necropsy on the animal.

But as the days continue, the whale will continue to decompose, limiting the number of viable samples it can offer.

Correction: The photo accompanying this article was originally incorrectly credited to Cassandra Schoofs.

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

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