Humpback whale found dead on North Carolina Outer Banks

COROLLA, N.C. – A dead humpback whale has been found stranded on the North Carolina coast.

Video taken from Whalehead Beach in Corolla last Sunday by BeachPosts showed the whale in the surf. Karen Clark with the Outer Banks Mammal Marine Stranding Network tells WAVY in Norfolk, Virginia, that the small juvenile female humpback whale may have died after becoming entangled in an unknown object.

Clark said a necropsy was performed on the whale, which she said was about 2 years old and over 27 feet (8 metres) long.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk cited experts who say humpback whales spend winter in the Caribbean but begin migrating to the North Atlantic this time of year for the summer. The experts say Virginia Beach’s coast is a supplemental feeding area on their journey north.