Megaptera novaeangliae (humpback whale) - IFAW-10-188-Mn

Abstract

Megaptera novaeangliae (humpback whale) - IFAW-10-188-Mn - male - 9.14 m - Pelvic location - Greenfield Community College. A floating 26.9-foot (820 cm) male Humpback was spotted by the noon trip of one of the Captain John whale watch boats out of Plymouth on the SW corner of Stellwagen Bank. In the afternoon of September 11, it washed up on a near-shore sandbar in Chatham and was towed to the adjacent Lighthouse Beach. The necropsy and salvage were conducted the following day and took about 4.5 hours. The entire skeleton was salvaged except for the right scapula which was accidently left in place. The cervical and first thoracic vertebrae were loose from the heat of decomposition, so the neural arches of 4 cervicals (# 3-6) were broken off, and several of the vertebral discs were shattered from the carcass rolling in the surf. Donated to Brian Adams, Greenfield Community College, Greenfield, MA (Sept. 2011).