By PETER BOTHUM • The News Journal •
September 3, 2010
A 31-foot fin whale washed ashore around noon
today on the ocean side of the point at Cape
Henlopen State Park in Lewes.
Suzanne Thurman, executive director of the non-
profit Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation
Institute, said the baby calf was only a few months
old when it died at sea and was brought ashore by
the increase in wave activity caused by Hurricane
Earl.
It was spotted in the late morning by a park ranger
and brought ashore with a backhoe.
”I almost thought that it was going to be too heavy
for it,” Thurman said. “They just didn’t give up.”
Thurman said she and others from MERR will be
back on the beach Saturday to perform a necropsy
and bury the whale, which had been dead for
several days to a week when it floated to the beach.
Volunteers from MERR had wanted to perform the
necropsy today, but the massive waves whipped up
by the storm forced everyone away from the whale,
Thurman said.
"The tide was just so severe," she said.
While some members attend to the dearly departed,
others will be educating curious onlookers about
the whale and the conservation of marine mammals,
Thurman said.
To learn more about the great work that MERR is doing
or to become a much needed new member/supporter
clink on the MERR link;
http://merrinstitute.org/
Want to learn more about Fin Whales? Click here
http://www.coolantarctica.com
Article in Wilmington News Journal;
http://www.delawareonline.com/
