By JASON SCHREIBER
Union Leader Correspondent
October 18. 2018 11:11PM
RYE — Preliminary results of a necropsy have found that a minke whale that washed up on Jenness State Beach last month died of entanglement in legal fishing gear.
The findings were announced this week by the Seacoast Science Center’s Marine Mammal Rescue team, which assisted with the dead whale after it was discovered on the beach on Sept. 19.
The necropsy was performed shortly after the whale was found to determine its cause of death.
Officials suspected fishing gear as a possible cause even before the examination was done.
The whale was removed from the beach and brought to a different location where the necropsy could be performed because its remains were composted.
The effort to transport the whale became a bit of a spectacle when the operator of a front-end loader attempted to lower the carcass into a dumpster. The whale was too big for the dumpster and rolled off the side and onto the pavement.
The dumpster was being used to safely transport the whale to the site of the necropsy.
The unfortunate dumpster incident was captured in a video clip that went viral. A larger dumpster was brought in the next day to move the whale.
