Dead Humpback Whale's Tail Nearly Severed - Nantucket, MA

Law enforcement officials are looking for the person who attempted to cut off the tail of a dead, endangered whale on Nantucket.

The 40-foot long humpback whale, estimated to weigh 35 tons, washed ashore on Smith's Point on Nantucket over the weekend.

Sometime Sunday evening, someone attempted to cut off the whale's fluke and got about half-to-three-quarters the way through, according to Tony LaCasse of the New England Aquarium.

LaCasse said they were baffled as to why someone would do this. The whale had drifted into the surf Monday afternoon.

The cut prevented scientist sfrom dragging the whale onshore to perform a necropsy that would determine the cause of death.

Mutilating a whale is a federal crime, according to LaCasse. Anyone with information is asked to call 866-755-6622.

wcvb.com

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• dead
• humpback
• whale
• tail
• nearly
• severed
• juvenile
• calf
• smiths
• point
• nantucket
• massachusetts
• new
• ne
• england
• aquarium
• stranded
• rescuers
• police
• endangered
• cape
• cod
• tony
• lacasse
• satellite
• news
• service
• satellitenewsservice.com
• adam
• kennedy

[crazyhockeygirl02]

That's gross

[pukeitup]

creepy that someone would do that... but really, how can the whale still be "endangered" as you say, if it is already dead? A bit of a conundrum there...