Officials with the National Park Service are asking for the public’s help as they try to figure out how a humpback whale was injured by a boat in June.

Pictures published by the park on July 1 show a humpback whale with a large gash behind its dorsal fin. The whale was photographed uninjured on June 16, and the injury took place sometime between then and June 27, when a photo of the injury was taken by a biologist near Willoughby Island.

“They swim around all over the place. We don’t know exactly where it would have been. We do know that it had been spotted in a similar area to where it was seen only seven days before that. So we’re quite sure it’s been feeding in this area and then it had that fresh injury on the 27th, so we are expecting that someone quite close was in this area and interacted with that whale and ran into it,” said Matthew Cahill, public information officer for Glacier Bay National Park.

Two cruise ships and 25 private vessels are allowed per day into Glacier Bay. 

Last year, several whales were struck by boats and ships in nearby waters, and at least two whales died as a result.

“We do know that whales are getting hit by boats in the area. I can’t tell you how many, though,” Cahill said, explaining that not all injuries are seen or reported, and data is anecdotal.

From his perspective, “we have a couple of identified photos of individual (whales) with fresh prop marks this year.”

Whale injuries are notable because humpbacks, gray whales and other species are protected by federal law. All vessels in the park are prohibited from coming within one quarter of a nautical mile of a humpback, and if they come inside that radius by accident, they must immediately reduce speed to 10 knots.

Cahill said that the Glacier Bay area is one of the more protected parts of Southeast Alaska for humpback whales, and staff at the park want to protect the marine environment while still providing a good visitor experience.

Anyone with information about the stricken whale has been asked to contact the park at 907-697-2230.