Ship Kills Blue Whale

Although blue whales are making a remarkable recovery from the devastation meted out during the peak whaling years of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the endangered species still occasionally runs afoul of human activities. The blue whale found dead in the Santa Barbara Channel on Tuesday, September 11 was confirmed to have been killed by a large vessel traveling through the shipping lanes in the channel.

Researchers from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, working with the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute (CIMWI) and the County of Ventura Public Works Department, performed a necropsy on the whale, burying under the beach at Faria County Park what remains weren’t kept for research. According to Paul Collins, the Natural History Museum’s curator of vertebrate zoology, relatively minor exterior lacerations were seen initially. However, as the research team peeled back layers of blubber and delved deeper into the carcass of the deceased animal, significant bruising, many broken vertebrae, and a severed spinal cord confirmed that it was killed by a ship. “The abdomen was full of blood from major damage to the organs,” Collins said. “These fresh bleeds were consistent with a ship strike.”

Collins explained that they received a call from a research vessel from Oregon-which was tagging blue whales for tracking purposes-that one was floating in the channel near the northwest end of Santa Rosa Island. A National Geographic film crew was aboard and filmed the sighting, including underwater shots that showed several sharks feeding on the underside of the carcass. “During the necropsy, we measured one shark bite as being 22 inches across,” Collins said.