Rare Baird's beak whale dies from gunshot outside Whittier
Scientists trying to find out why whale was in Prince William Sound
ANCHORAGE - Whittier police and the National Marine Fisheries Service are investigating the shooting of a whale that is rare in Alaska waters.
The juvenile Baird's beak whale was spotted thrashing in Passage Canal outside Whittier on Wednesday morning and it died about two hours later.
The animal had been shot by a high-powered rifle or shotgun, said Whittier Police Chief Donn White.
"It was hard to watch when there's nothing you can do for him," White told the Anchorage Daily News.
The 18-foot whale weighed an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 pounds, White said. The carcass, deep blue with variously shaped gray spots on its belly, was moved to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward.
Scientists there will try to learn whether the gunshot wound, a thumb-sized hole in the top right of the whale's body in front of its dorsal fin, proved mortal, White said.
They also wanted to learn more about the animal and try to understand what it was doing in Prince William Sound, he said.
Baird's beak whale are found in the North Pacific but more commonly around Japan, Vancouver Island in Canada and central California, according to the Web site Cetacea, at cetacea.org. Adults are 30 to 33 feet long, White said.
"I've never seen one of this nature before, with a beak on it like a porpoise," he said.
Fishermen catching late-run silver salmon east of Whittier first saw the whale and called Whittier police at 9:15 a.m. White guessed the animal had been shot four or five hours earlier.
He was among those who motored out to see it. The whale was disoriented and obviously in distress, gasping for air and eventually trying but failing to beach itself.
"It was a terrible death," White said.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is investigating the shooting as a crime, he said.