CAPE ELIZABETH — The carcass of a 27-foot-long male Minke whale washed up on the rocky shoreline near Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth this morning.
Lynda Doughty, Executive Director of Marine Mammals of Maine, responded. She estimated the whale weighed about 8,000 pounds.
Doughty said the whale was so badly decomposed that she decided against doing a necropsy. She estimated the whale probably died at sea several weeks ago and washed ashore on Thursday.
“We’ve decided to leave the whale there and let Nature take its course,” Doughty said. She would not speculate on how the whale may have died.
Jeanne Curran, a spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Conservation, said the whale is on private property near the boundary with the state park. A ranger notified Marine Mammals of Maine that there was a dead whale on the rocks near the park.
Minke whales are commonly found in the Gulf of Maine.
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