More study planned on whale carcass

Brad Nettles
The Post and Courier

Folly Beach resident Carol Linville looks at a 10-foot pygmy sperm whale that washed ashore on the beach Friday morning.

A necropsy of a pygmy sperm whale that washed ashore Friday at Folly Beach was inconclusive as to the cause of the animal's death, but further lab study is planned, a scientist said Monday.

The 10-foot-long, 800-pound whale was "heavily parasitized" and malnourished, said Wayne McFee, a marine biologist with the National Ocean Service. It died 24 to 48 hours before a surfer found it at East Arctic Avenue and 6th Street East. Its body temperature was "still fairly warm," he said.

Tissue samples have been sent to a veterinary pathology lab. The blubber and liver will be tested for environmental contaminants, McFee said. "We won't have an answer as to the cause (of death) for a month or so," he said.

A few remains of shrimp and squid were found in the whale's stomach, but it was not eating in the way it should have been. "When you get the flu, you don't feel like eating much," McFee said. The same thing happens with a sick whale.

"It had parasites in a lot of different places," he said, including in its blubber, muscle and stomach. Parasites take advantage of sickly animals, he said.

In the last two weeks, 12 pygmy sperm whales have been found dead in Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. "When they all start coming in at the same time, you wonder what's going on," McFee said.

A domestic beetle colony will pick clean the whale skeleton, he said. The skeleton could be used for research or donated to a school or museum, he said.

McFee has said it is unusual to have this particular species strand locally. Pygmy sperm whales are deep-water mammals typically found near the Gulf Stream. The whale feeds on squid, and it dives 3,200 feet or more for its prey, he said.

Two pygmy sperm whales were found dead less than two weeks ago at Botany Bay Island off Edisto Island, he said. Because of the remote location, the whales were not retrieved for study, he said. McFee said it is more common to find dead bottlenose dolphins in area waters. A pygmy usually is found still alive when it washes ashore, he said.

Pygmy sperm whale strandings are erratic in South Carolina. Some years there are none, but up to eight beached whales have been reported in other years, he said. South Carolina typically has 45 marine mammal strandings annually, and about 80 percent of them are bottlenose dolphins, he said.

In April 2007, officials euthanized an emaciated pygmy sperm whale found beached on Sullivan's Island. The same month, another distressed pygmy was photographed off Kiawah Island and reportedly died. A pygmy and her calf stranded and died on Sand Island in Georgetown County in June 2005.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711 or pfindlay@ postandcourier.com.