Whale rescued from fishing gear found dead

Biologists carved up the remains Thursday of an endangered right whale they had untangled from fishing gear off Brevard County last month.




They found the 30-foot long whale dead at sea Tuesday about 28 miles southeast of St. Augustine during an aerial survey for the whales, which migrate through Florida this time of year.

Portions of the remains were to be sent to several laboratories for examination. But biologists believe they know what killed the animal.

"This is a small whale that's showing the signs of chronic entanglement in fishing gear," said Tom Pitchford, a wildlife biologist with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission helping with Thursday's necropsy, or animal autopsy.

"As disappointing as it may be to find it dead, there's still a tremendous amount that can be learned from a thorough examination of this whale."

Scientists say lessons learned from a novel method of sedating and tagging the whale at sea could help save other whales. The January rescue off Brevard was only the second time scientists have been able to perform such a feat.

The whale was born during the 2008-09 calving season. It was originally seen entangled north of Brevard on Christmas Day by an aerial survey team.

In late December, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its partners removed 150 feet of line -- thought to be from crab traps -- from the whale as it swam near Daytona Beach.

They did not use drugs to slow the whale at that time and hoped the rest of the line would fall off by itself. When it didn't, the team tracked the whale via a satellite tag and waited for weather calm enough to try to remove the rest.

Biologists removed the remaining 50 feet of line from the whale's mouth and pectoral fins Jan. 15, sedating the animal as it swam near Cape Canaveral.

They jabbed the 15,500-pound whale in the back with a dart projector, injecting it with a hyper-concentrated drug cocktail. The drugs slowed the whale, which can swim up to 10 knots, down to about two knots. That enabled biologists to approach in a 22-foot boat close enough to remove the rest of the line.

At the time, they estimated the animal had about a 50 percent chance of survival.

"Seven days of tracking it via satellite, after the sedation, it swam well and indeed swam hundreds of miles," Pitchford said.

In 2009, scientists used sedation for the first time to help disentangle a much larger right whale -- a 45-footer -- near Daytona Beach.

This week's whale was the only known right whale to die so far this year in Florida, said Karrie Carnes, a spokeswoman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There are an estimated 350 right whales.