Two humpback whales seen dead off the coasts of New York and New Jersey earlier this week had evidence of blunt trauma, officials said.
One was a 14-foot-tall man floating off the coast of Long Island, and the other was an 8-foot-tall woman in Raritan Bay between New York and New Jersey. Although the two whales were first seen on Wednesday, their “different levels of decomposition” indicate their deaths were unrelated. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a Facebook post on Friday.
NOAA also announced the probable cause of death for each whale. The male probably died of “blunt force trauma”, while the female is believed to have been killed by “blunt and sharp trauma consistent with a collision with a ship”.
The male was already “severely decomposed” by the time rescuers brought it ashore. However, the female was less decomposed and officials found that the animal suffered bruises, cuts, multiple fractures and a severed fin.
Humpback whale deaths have been increasing since January 2016, CNN reported that.
However, 40% of the dead whales appeared to have been damaged by “human interaction”, entangled in fishing gear or struck by ships. The rest of the whale carcasses were too decayed to determine a cause of death, NOAA said.