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Necropsy: Second Southern California blue whale died of ship strike
By: Associated Press | ∞
VENTURA -- Preliminary results of a necropsy done on a blue whale carcass that was found floating off the Southern California coast revealed that a ship killed the mammal.
The dead blue whale, which was discovered Friday, was the third whale found this month. A necropsy done on one of the other blue whales determined that it too died from a collision with a ship.
Scientists determined that the cranium of the latest whale was smashed and there was extensive damage to its skeleton, according to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The necropsy found that the whale was alive when it was hit by the ship and died instantly.
There are about 100 blue whales in the Santa Barbara Channel and their primary food source, krill, is prevalent in shipping lanes.
Earlier this month a blue whale carcass washed ashore in Long Beach Harbor, but local officials towed it out to sea before marine wildlife scientists could analyze the tissue. A necropsy done on another 140,000-pound blue whale that washed ashore in Ventura last Thursday revealed the mammal died in a collision with a ship.
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