Tides play havoc with body of fin whale (Canada)

A dead whale washed up on the shore of Tenecape, Hants County on Monday. (Trudy Garby)

 Tue. Jun 8 (GORDON DELANEY). A dead whale that was floating in Cobequid Bay and washed up briefly on the shore near Upper Economy on the weekend is a fin whale, a fisheries officer said Monday.

The large mammal was spotted last Friday as it floated along the coast in Colchester County. It ended up on the beach near Upper Economy on the weekend.

But it has since floated away with the tides, said a resident.

“My wife just came back from where it was and it’s gone,” said Angus Quinn, owner of High Tides Bed and Breakfast in Lower Economy.

The Economy area on the North Shore of the Minas Basin has about 200 people.

The dead whale washed up along the shore about four kilometres north of Bass River.

“My wife went up to take some pictures of it,” said Quinn. “She takes a lot of pictures, but it must have floated out in the high tide. Nobody knows.”

He said the beaching of the whale caused some excitement in the small community, with many people talking about it and taking photos.

The area where the whale washed up on shore was hard to get to because it was at the bottom of a steep bank, Quinn said.

Andrew Newbould, a marine mammal adviser for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said in an interview that the 15-metre fin whale was floating in the bay late Monday afternoon, but fisheries officers had a chance to identify it.

“It’s hard to get at right now because it’s rolling around out in the bay,” said Newbould.

He said fin whales don’t wash up on the beach very often.

“It’s not entirely unheard of, but it’s not very common.”

The fisheries officers are trying to determine what killed the whale, but if it washes away in the bay, the cause of death may never be known.

Fin whales can grow as large as 25 metres. They are one of the planet’s largest whales.

They are listed as a species of concern under the federal Species at Risk Act after heavy fishing in the last century threatened to wipe them out.

Source