"most likely a tragic accident"
"a whale we came to know and love."
"We affectionately nicknamed him 'Oil Change' for a large, solid white spot on his fluke,"
"stole our hearts in late July, spending over an hour flipper slapping, rolling near the boat, and breaching."
A 32-foot, roughly 10-ton young male humpback known as Oil Change washed up near Bethany Beach after floating at sea for several days. A necropsy found blunt force trauma, including hemorrhaging beneath the skin and a broken right-side jaw, consistent with being struck while alive by a large ship. The whale was towed ashore, examined by a stranding response team, and subsequently buried on the beach because large whales cannot be towed safely back out to sea. The animal had been seen frequently off Cape Cod, engaging in breaching and flipper slapping and was recognized by whale-watch crews.
Read at Boston.com
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