Cause of death revealed for 53-foot sea creature that washed up on Oregon beach
A 53-foot sea creature washed ashore after it was reported dead off the coast of Oregon.
Now researchers know how it died.
The adult male sperm whale washed ashore 12 miles north of Seaside between Del Ray and Sunset Beach, according to a June 1 Instagram post by Seaside Aquarium.
The whale was spotted floating before it eventually washed ashore May 29, according to a June 3 Facebook post by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries West Coast.
There were two angled and paralleled cuts across the top of the whale's head, officials said.
After performing a necropsy and seeing 'trauma with several vertebrae exposed and twisted,' researchers determined the whale died because it was hit by a vessel, officials said.
Sperm whales can reach lengths of 60 feet long and weigh in at over 40 tons, the Seaside Aquarium said.
They are classified as an endangered species and can live up to 60 years. They feed on squid, sharks and fish, officials said.
The whale will remain on the beach and decompose over time, as eagles and coyotes have the 'ability to feed on this whale for quite some time,' officials said.
Seaside is about an 80-mile drive northwest of Portland.
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Antoniussen doesn't think it's a berg that tipped over — or rolled on the beach — picking up dirt and rocks after getting grounded. He's seen a lot of icebergs over his 50 years of fishing off of Greenland, and more recently off the Labrador coast since 1989. The 64-year-old said it was hard to estimate the size of the iceberg at sea but figured it was at least three times the size of a regular bungalow. He took a picture from roughly six kilometres away. "It's something you don't see very often, and a camera is not something I run around [with] when I'm working. So, I just ran to my room and took my phone and snapped this picture," he said. Antoniussen said the berg looked like a rock with lots of really dark greys and black veins in it, and quickly ruled out that a shadow was being cast on it. He took the photo to show other crew members on the fishing boat. Then Antoniussen posted it on Facebook, and it soon took off, garnering hundreds of comments after being shared around. 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He guesses it could be between 1,000 and 2,000 years old, but could also contain ice that's older than 100,000 years old. Tarasov said ice from all over Greenland is slowly converging toward its coastline, and when it gets there, it breaks off to form icebergs. Those icebergs can take one to three years before reaching the Newfoundland and Labrador coastline. Tarasov says it's a reminder just how dynamic ice can be. Ice streams, also known as outlet glaciers, move much faster than other parts of the ice sheet; they carry ice from the interior, traveling through deep valleys or channels out to the coast. They pick up rocks and dirt along the way. "There's parts of the ice that are actually flowing up to 20 kilometres per year, which would mean that ... the ice is moving maybe a few metres every hour," Tarasov said. The bottom of the ice grinds against the earth's crust, he explained. 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The iceberg could have some dust from that meteorite strike if it came from the area. No matter what, the ice likely isn't new: it's quite possible the dirt on the iceberg may not have seen the "light of day for hundreds of thousands of years," Tarasov said. Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.
