What fishermen thought was a rarely-seen sea creature on Tuesday turned out to be a badly-decomposed cetacean.<\/p>\n
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration received reports Tuesday night from fishermen near St. James Bay, saying that something peculiar was floating in the water.<\/p>\n
“We received a report yesterday afternoon that there was a giant 30-foot squid in the area,” said NOAA spokesperson Julie Speegle in a Wednesday phone interview.<\/p>\n
NOAA sent a biologist from the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute out to investigate Tuesday evening. The biologist didn’t find a giant squid, but a “badly-decomposed” humpback whale, Speegle said. The whale was missing its head and tail. Fishermen may have mistaken protruding bones for an eye, Speegle said. <\/p>\n
“We think it was floating belly up and there were some vertebrae and a ball and socket from the pectoral joint that were visible,” Speegle said. “That may have been what people were mistaking for an eye.”<\/p>\n
NOAA believes this is the same humpback carcass that washed ashore<\/a> after a large vessel likely struck and killed<\/a> it, Speegle said. The Marine Mammal Stranding Network conducted a necropsy on that whale in June, hoping to establish what killed the 38.7-foot “sub adult” male. Results from that work won’t be available until late in the year.<\/p>\n The whale was seen beached Tuesday afternoon before it was spotted floating later that day, Speegle said.<\/p>\n