Dead minke whale washes ashore on Trenton Avenue

LAVALLETTE — A necropsy has been completed on a minke whale which washed ashore on Lavallette’s Trenton Avenue beach last Friday, finding the remains to be underweight and possibly diseased.

On Sunday, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC), a Brigantine-based nonprofit focused on rescuing and rehabilitating injured marine mammals, announced preliminary results of the necropsy on its Facebook page. According to the MMSC, the organs of the adult male minke whale, which had no food in its digestive system, showed damage consistent with “infectious disease.”

“On Saturday, Oct. 5 the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, with the assistance of Stranding Network partners Atlantic Marine Conservation Society and Cornell University, conducted a necropsy (animal autopsy) on the minke whale that washed ashore deceased in Lavallette on Friday, Oct. 4,” said the MMSC.

“The whale was identified as an adult male measuring 17.5 feet in length and was in thin body condition, with no food found in the digestive tract,” the center said. “Evidence of inflammation in multiple organs consistent with infectious disease was documented. Biological samples were collected and will be sent for histopathologic analysis.”

Initially, after the carcass was discovered on Trenton Avenue beach the morning of Oct. 4, the MMSC announced on its Facebook page that, and further confirmed that this whale was not the same individual as another dead minke whale sighted in the Raritan Bay the prior day. Shortly after being discovered, the remains were transported to the public works yard in Lavallette, awaiting necropsy.

The MMSC also explained in the post that the whale carcass was buried on the beach following the necropsy.

“The final disposal of a whale carcass is the responsibility of the property owner. The (borough) of Lavallette elected to bury the remains on the beach at the conclusion of the necropsy,” said the center.

The MMSC thanked its volunteers, Cornell University, Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, Lavallette Department of Public Works, Lavallette Police Department and New Jersey Fish and Wildlife for responding to the incident.

When full necropsy results become available, they will be shared at mmsc.org/current-cetacean-data.

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