An unusual and disturbing sight greeted workers at the Port of Tacoma early Monday morning: a whale carcass lodged on the bow of a container ship.
Marine mammal experts are working with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to determine what killed the 70-foot whale.
“They’re like, ‘Did you hear about the whale that was on the front of the bow of the Evergreen ship?’ I was like, ‘What?’” said Ashley Lathrop, who works around the giant vessels and said she had never seen anything like it.
A 70-foot whale carcass was discovered lodged on the bow of an Evergreen container ship upon its arrival at the Port of Tacoma. Marine mammal experts and the State Department of Fish and Wildlife are conducting a necropsy to determine the species and cause of death, as the carcass is heavily decomposed.
An unusual and disturbing discovery.
A dead whale showed up in the Port of Tacoma early Monday morning, lodged on the front
of a container ship.
Right now, marine mammal experts are working with the State Department of Fish and Wildlife
to determine what killed that 70-foot whale.
Come with us.
Michelle Esteban joins us from Blair Dock in the Port of Tacoma tonight.
Michelle?
Well, Molly, as you can see over my shoulder here, the vessel involved is still here at
the Port of Tacoma.
But it's the whale carcass that was discovered with it that has drawn both the curious and
the compassionate.
They're like, did you hear about the whale that was on the front of the bow of the Evergreen
ship?
I'm like, what?
A head-scratcher and a heartbreaker, a whale carcass seen here came into the Port of Tacoma
Monday morning on the bow of this Evergreen cargo ship.
Ashley Leithrip had to see it for herself.
She works around the giant vessels all the time and said this is a first.
I think that's absolutely crazy.
Fish and Wildlife told me it may be an endangered fin whale, but said it's so badly decomposed
they won't know the species or cause of death until after a necropsy or, if necessary, genetic
testing.
These pics show the 70-foot carcass being towed out of the port's Blair Dock, headed
to an undisclosed location on McNeil Island to determine how it died.
It's sad.
Another whale out there gone.
There's so many showing up these days on beaches and other places.
Fish and Wildlife says their population is shrinking.
In 2018, only 8,000 were living off the West Coast year-round.
It happens periodically, what I've been told and heard, so it's a shame.
Rocky's right.
He works in the area too and visits Ruston Point regularly to whale watch.
Fish and Wildlife investigators, which are working with the West Coast Marine Mammal
Stranding Network on this case, told me a stranded whale on a vessel's bow is not
unprecedented.
Poor whale.
Everybody's talking about it, right, so they just want to kind of know what's happened.
Now, I also reached out to Evergreen Shipping via email.
I'm awaiting a response.
It is possible they may not have even known the carcass was there until after they got
into port.
Fish and Wildlife, though, tonight, stressing, if you see a stranded whale, if you see a
carcass, report it immediately.
You see the phone number there on your screen.
Call this number, 1-866-767-6114.
We also have that information for you with this story on our website, comonews.com.
Back to you.
