Severed fin of killer whale found on beach

WESTPORT, Wash. – A dorsal fin severed from the back of a killer whale was found this week on a beach near a Washington state park. Wildlife advocates say the whale is dead but wonder what happened to the rest of it.

The fin did not come from one of Washington’s resident orcas, but from a mammal-eating “transient” killer whale, said Robin Baird of Cascadia Research, an organization that focuses on threatened marine mammals. The transient killer whales are not endangered, he said.

“It’s quite a mystery,” he said, as to why the fin and surrounding tissue – about 150 pounds of whale flesh – washed up Tuesday on a Grays Harbor beach near Twin Harbors State Park, in an inlet of the Pacific Ocean just south of Westport.

The fin and back tissue appeared to have been cleanly removed, as if by a knife, Baird said.

Officials from Fisheries and Oceans Canada were able to identify unique markings on the fin and back section as belonging to T086, an adult female that has been known since 1986.

Baird said he was certain the whale was dead, though he didn’t know what killed it.

A veterinary pathologist who examined the fin determined the whale died sometime in the past five days, Baird said Thursday. It’s the second transient killer whale to have died in the Pacific Northwest within the past month, he said.

His organization, which has organized an investigation, is encouraging weekend visitors to Pacific Ocean beaches to look for the rest of a dead adult killer whale, probably about 17 to 20 feet long.

Brian Gorman, spokesman for NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle, called the case “very odd,” but said it was too early to tell if the federal government would investigate.

Gorman noted that it is illegal to keep marine mammal parts or to kill the creatures.

The transient killer whales range from central California to southeast Alaska.