Pilot Whale Beached at Indian River Inlet Dies
Images courtesy Sheri Marie Finazzo
Suzanne Thurman from the MERR Institute says the juvenile short-finned pilot whale that beached itself on Monday on the north side of the Indian River Inlet has died.
She was rolling around in the surf where rocks were cutting open her wounds, Thurman says, and was also taking in water.
“We were able to rescue her from that situation but she was already in the process of dying. We were able to determine that she hadn’t been eating for a while and had a heavy parasite load, all signs of a debilitated animal. We hope that the samples will shed some light on any underlying conditions that contributed to her death,” Thurman added.
This was the second beached whale that MERR has responded to this year. On May 5, MERR investigated a fin whale that came to shore in this same area north of the inlet.
