Biologists, onlookers continue examining a nearly 50-foot fin whale that washed ashore on Anchorage’s mud flats

As crowds of onlookers trekked across Anchorage’s tidal mud flats to see the carcass of a 47-foot fin whale that washed ashore over the weekend, biologists on Monday continued searching for clues how the animal died.

The carcass was found Saturday night along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, near the mouth of Fish Creek and just south of Westchester Lagoon. Biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been examining the animal — a young female, judging from its size and appearance.

“It is pretty young, like a yearling or a juvenile,” in the 1-to-3-year range, said Barbara Mahoney, a NOAA biologist examining the whale.

Fin whales are an endangered species and, with some exceptions, are rarely seen this close to Anchorage, said Mandy Keogh, marine mammal stranding coordinator at NOAA. They feed in the lower Cook Inlet. High tides of the past week might have pushed the whale this far north into the Knik Arm, Keogh said.

On Sunday, NOAA biologists and Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services staff anchored the carcass to the shore and started taking skin and blubber samples to get more information about the whale and try to determine why it died.

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Lena Jacobs collects baleen from the fin whale washed un on the shore near downtown Anchorage on Sunday, November 24, 2024. Jacobs is Tlingit of the Raven Salmon Clan from Haines Alaska and a scrimshaw artist. She has scrimshawed a fin whale on one of the pieces she collected earlier. Jacobs said it is a once in a life time opportunity and she feels excited to be in a whale’s mouth. (Bob Hallinen Photo)

The animal flipped overnight, and a bigger team of biologists and volunteers was able to access the areas of the belly, lower intestines and the heart, Mahoney said.

“We’ve got some urine and some heart tissues ... and additional blood and baleen samples,” Mahoney said.

The cutting was hard at first, but the tissue inside the whale was softer, suggesting that the animal might have died recently, Mahoney said.

“But to be honest, maybe I need to talk to some bowhead hunters because they hunt when it’s below freezing,” Mahoney added. “I wonder how fast things cool down, you know?”

Since fin whales are an endangered species, residents are not allowed to take any parts of the whale unless they are Alaska Native and are doing it for subsistence, Keogh said.

In the past few days, hundreds of residents, including families, students and people recreating on the coastal trail, made the trek across the mud flats to see the carcass, though most didn’t stay long in the cold and windy conditions Monday, Mahoney said.

“There was a lot of interest from the public, people asking us questions,” she said. “It’s rare to be able to walk 15 minutes to see something that is almost 50 feet long.”

Daisy Grandlinard and several other parents took a group of six children to see the whale on Monday. As soon as the group crested the hill to started walking down to the beach, they could smell it, Grandlinard said.

“It was really interesting for the kids to be able to feel it, touch the bottom because it kind of had tracks on it, like a sled almost. And just to see the size of it, that was pretty cool,” she said. “We had already studied whales a couple of weeks ago so it was fun to see one in person and say, ‘Oh, that’s what the baleen looks like in real life,' and ‘Where is the blow hole?’”

The whale remained anchored to the shore Monday and biologists planned to return the next day for additional samples and photos, Mahoney said. The sample analysis might take from several months to around a year, she said.

Keogh said that even after the analysis, scientists often can’t find the cause of death because of decomposition or the lack of obvious injuries, and the time of death can be hard to estimate when the animal is frozen.

With tides gradually receding later this week, biologists hoped to wrap up their evaluation Tuesday and untie the carcass.

“We’ll remove the anchors tomorrow and let the tide push it or move it,” Mahoney said. “Whatever it does or doesn’t do — we don’t know.”