A veterinarian with the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday cut into a juvenile killer whale that washed up last weekend on a Lutak Inlet beach, seeking clues about why it died.
NOAA veterinarian Dr. Rachel Dziuba took samples from the orca’s brain, tongue, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and lymph nodes, as well as from blubber and fatty acoustic panels in its jaw.
The whale was a male, more than eight feet long, with small teeth. It showed no outward signs of trauma but was covered in pock-like lesions and had light brown, instead of white, patches of skin coloration.
Residents who helped with the procedure said the animal’s flesh didn’t look as bad as its exterior and its smell wasn’t particularly offensive. “It wasn’t a revolting task to open up the belly,” said Fish and Game biologist Rich Chapell.
Killer whales were reported in Chilkoot Inlet about a week ago.
Mike Van Note, who works as a biological consultant, helped carve into the animal, an experience he said was very different from skinning out a moose, for example. “Once you get past the blubber layer, there’s a lot of connective tissues to the muscles. You had to work at it.”
Fish and Game’s Chapell said the whale’s bones will go to the Takshanuk Watershed Council, which is hoping to reassemble the animal’s skeleton. Flesh-eating beetles may be used to clean the bones of meat, he said.
The discovery of the whale by a visitor marked a first for Richard Buck, a 36-year Lutak resident who has found buoys, sawlogs and fishing equipment on the beach there, but never a whale.
“I was out chopping wood and a Canadian came by and asked, ‘What’s that animal down on the beach?’” Buck said. “They had no idea what it was. At first I thought it was a porpoise. I’d never seen a killer whale up close.”
“We opened up its mouth and its teeth only stick up about a quarter inch. There’s hardly anything there,” Buck said. Internet sources place killer whale newborns between seven and 8.5 feet long and a 2002 study suggested cetacean poxvirus could play a role in mortality of very young orcas.
Wildlife trooper Ricky Merritt said it’s rare for killer whales to wash up on beaches in Southeast and federal officials may test for a bacteria found in an orca that washed ashore earlier this year in Sitka.
Residents thronged to see the whale Monday evening, after a kindergartener took news of the find to class. “I imagine show-and-tell was very interesting,” Buck said.
Buck on Monday said he hoped federal officials would haul the animal off, as bears frequent the beach. “The tides are dropping and I think we’re stuck with this thing. I hope we can roll it down the beach and tow it to somebody else’s place. If the bears make a claim on that thing, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Biologist Chapell said after the animal’s skeleton was taken there wasn’t much meat left on the beach for scavengers.