Whale was first seen on Tuesday night and was thought to be between 6 and 7.6 meters long
A dead minke whale was found this week on a beach on the Acadian Peninsula in northeastern New Brunswick. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is looking into what happened.
On Tuesday night, people in the community of Lamèque first saw the whale off the coast of Cap-Bateau.
A DFO representative confirmed that the whale that died was a minke and said that more information would be shared later.
At about 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Denise Thibodeau was walking along the beach at Cap-Bateau when she saw the whale a few meters away.
Armandine Haché, who lives next to the beach, saw the dead minke around noon on Wednesday, when it was closer to the beach. She said she told the authorities about what she saw, and on Wednesday afternoon, fisheries officers were there.
Both women think that the whale is about 6 to 7.6 meters (20 to 25 feet) long.
“We’ve been there for 55 years, and this is the first time we’ve seen it,” Haché said in French to Radio-Canada.
Denise Thibodeau, who has lived in the area for eight years, also said she had never seen a beached whale before.
WATCH | DFO says this whale’s body is that of a minke:
“I was surprised and sad at the same time,” she told him.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a science agency of the U.S. government, says:It is thought that the number of minke whales is stable..
One of ‘most abundant
“Minke whales are the smallest of the baleen whales, which are also called “great” whales.rorquals“, it says on its website.The largest group of baleen whales is the rorquals.
“They are one of the most common rorquals in the world, and most of their range is thought to have stable populations.”
They can grow to more than 10 meters (about 35 feet) long and can live up to 50 years.
The Washington-based group’s website says that since January 2017, there have been more minke deaths along the Atlantic coast from Maine to South Carolina.
At the time of publication, the agency had not responded to a request for more information.