Young Humpback Found Stranded in Godbout Given Second Life in Tadoussac

Judging by its size, the individual is believed to be between 10 and 14 months old, thus born in the Caribbean in the summer of 2016. The whale’s skin was covered with numerous barnacles, crustaceans that attach themselves to humpbacks during their stays in warmer waters. Stéphane Lair explains that the presence of these organisms is an indication that this individual had arrived in the St. Lawrence Estuary only recently, as barnacles fall off when they come into contact with cold water. Young humpbacks are nourished with their mothers’ rich milk until they are 6 to 10 months old; it can therefore be concluded that this young female was recently weaned.

Dr. Lair also explains that examining the animal did not reveal any significant lesions, thus ruling out the possibility of death due to a collision with a vessel or entanglement in fishing gear. These anthropogenic causes are responsible for more than half of the mortalities in young humpback whales stranded on the North American coasts. It should be noted that the thickness of the layer of insulating blubber under this young female’s skin appeared sub-optimal for the size of the animal. Moreover, only the terminal part of the digestive tract contained digested content, while the remainder of the digestive system was empty, indicating that this whale had not fed recently. These observations indicate that the whale likely suffered from a significant calorie deficit, which might have contributed to its stranding. Laboratory analyses carried out on the tissues taken during the necropsy will allow us to better understand the cause of death of this humpback whale.

We should mention that an “unusual mortality event” of humpbacks is presently being observed along the US coast: 42 carcasses have been found in the past 16 months. Signs of trauma (ship strikes) have been observed in about half of the whales examined. The cause of the other mortalities remains undetermined. According to Stéphane Lair, the death of this young humpback in the Estuary could be related to this unusual mortality event along the East Coast.

As for its identification, the female does not seem to be known to researchers at the Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS), which has compiled a catalogue of humpbacks identified in the St. Lawrence. Humpback whales show unique colour patterns on the undersides of their tails that serve as fingerprints; however, the tail pattern of the beached whale could not be matched with any of the catalogued photos.

For more images on the recovery of this humpback, visit the photo album on the Whales Online Facebook page.

* Special thanks to the Fondation de la faune du Québec, the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park, the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Régie de gestion des matières résiduelles Manicouagan, Transport Baie-Comeau and Mr. Camille Fortin of Godbout.