A Rare Event of a 50-Foot Whale Washing Up on a Downeast Beach

The young whale was found washed up on a Steuben beach, and people were soon posing with the carcass and posting it on social media.

The Bangor Daily News says that the female fin whale beached herself on Thanksgiving, and there were no visible signs of trauma or entanglement. She died shortly after beaching herself. Christi (Holmes) Elliott posted a photo of the whale on her Facebook page.

She wrote,

Young female fin whale beached herself and then died. Officials said she was emaciated and there was nothing they could do. Will be interesting to see what the necropsy results are. Very sad.

According to the BDN, fin whales are one of four large whale species in the Gulf of Maine. They are the second largest in the world behind the blue whale, and can get as big as 80 feet long. The one found in Stueben was nearly 50 feet long, and experts estimated it to be between two and five years old.

This was at the edge of Pigeon Hill Bay, and over the holiday weekend, several people went to see what was happening.

As the Bangor Daily News reported, it used to be rare to see whales wash ashore in the 1980s and 1990s, but now it is not unusual. The East Coast has had several reports due to getting hit by boats or tangled up in fishing gear, as well as the effects of climate changes.

But the storm on Monday washed the carcass back out to sea! Officials say they still hope to find it to learn more about why it died.