Dead humpback whale washes up in Little Compton; cause of death unknown

The Department of Environmental Management hopes to work with scientists from Mystic Aquarium to figure out why a humpback whale turned up dead on a Little Compton beach this weekend. 

The whale does not have any obvious scars or signs of having experienced a traumatic injury like being struck by a boat propeller, according to DEM spokesman Mike Healey. There's also no indication that it had become entangled by nets or fishing lines.

"These factors make the necropsy important," Healey wrote in an email. "Every necropsy provides a data point that helps scientists understand whales, their environment, and the ocean a little better."

The whale is a young adult male estimated to be about 25 feet long and weighing about 10 tons, Healey said. 

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If weather permits, the DEM aims to assist marine biologists from Mystic Aquarium in conducting a necropsy on Wednesday. 

The DEM got a call about the whale on Saturday, and staff marine biologist Scott Olszewski went out to inspect it later that day, Healey said. The mammal's large size and the fact that it washed up on a rocky, difficult-to-reach part of the coastline means that it will most likely be left there to decay.

"It washed up at a very remote location in Little Compton – likely too remote for us to undertake an effort to bury it at this rocky beach (which we could only do with the adjacent landowners’ permission) or move it and bury it at another (sandier) beach," Healey wrote. "It’s not the ideal scenario, but given the extreme weather over the next couple of days and the huge logistical effort that would be involved in trying to move the carcass, we’re inclined to leave it where it is and let nature take its course."

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"By late spring, it’ll likely be just bones," Healey added.

Little Compton's history with dead whales

Little Compton has been plagued by dead whales in the past. 

In 2004, just before Briggs Beach was scheduled to open for the summer season, a juvenile humpback whale weighing close to 20 tons washed up on the sand. A local resident showed up with a bulldozer and tried to push it out to sea, but waves kept pushing the whale back onto the shore. 

The private beach association eventually opted to dig a very large hole with an excavator and bury the whale, The Providence Journal reported at the time.

Another dead humpback whale washed up near Briggs Beach during the summer in 2009, which caused a whole new set of problems. After a backhoe operator attempted to bury the whale in the sand at low tide, pounding surf led the decaying carcass to resurface. 

Eventually, about 20 workers were called in to cut up the blubber from the increasingly fragrant whale and bury it in the sand.

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Right around the same time, a 14-foot pilot whale washed ashore near Sakonnet Point and was pushed out to sea, only to be carried back by the waves.

The most recent incident took place in 2011, when a 22-foot humpback whale was found dead on Lloyd's Beach. 

"Whales are magnificent and in the truest sense of the word, awesome, and humbling, and it’s really sad when one dies," Healey wrote. "That’s why we view a stranding like this, which has left an intact whale on our shores, as a gift to science."