A sad ending for 46-foot fin whale struck by ship

Somewhere in choppy seas beyond San Francisco is the carcass of the 46-foot fin whale you see in these photos. The whale was struck by a freighter in the shipping lanes and brought unknowingly into Long Beach Harbor on Saturday.

It remained pinned to the enormous freighter's bow well after the northbound vessel departed Monday. A shipping agent told Joe Cordaro, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, that the whale washed off the vessel Tuesday in the Bay Area.

It is the first such incident since last September, when a 70-foot blue whale was brought into Long Beach Harbor in the same macabre position. Cordaro said there is an average of one known vessel-whale collision per year off our coast, but added that last year there were four in a 30-day period, all involving blue whales.

The fin whale struck by the Chinese freighter was  a female between 1 to 3 years of age. Cordaro said it was too large to be removed for examination and port authorities decided the best way to deal with it was to let the ship carry it back to sea.

A sad way to migrate, for sure.

-- Pete Thomas

Photos courtesy of Diane Alps