Herman Melville didn’t mince words when it came to the sperm whale. With emphasis, he explained “I tell you, the sperm whale will stand no nonsense.” And it didn’t — since we know it as the creature that sank the whaleship Essex in the real-life tragedy that was the inspiration for Moby Dick.
In waters about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, a whale not seen in the region for more than two centuries was spotted from the skies last week by scientists with the New England Aquarium.
The rope embedded in the tail of a dead young right whale that washed up on the Vineyard last month is consistent with buoy lines used by trap fishermen in Maine.
Tribal leadership maintains it has aboriginal rights to any dead whales that beach along the shores of Noepe — the Wampanoag name for Martha’s Vineyard. Retaining that right has remained a priority for members, who have traditionally made use of whale meat, fat, bones and baleen.
The Wampanoag Tribe will receive the remaining skeleton of a dead juvenile humpback whale that washed up on Squibnocket Beach on Monday.
Matthew (Cully) Vanderhoop, natural resource director for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), said the skeleton will be put on exhibit at some future date in the tribe’s planned cultural center. He and a large team of scientists and volunteers spent much of yesterday cutting up the carcass and removing it from the beach.
The 3-year-old female whale was seen entangled in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in August 2022, and attempts to free it off Cape Cod last year were unsuccessful, according to the New England Aquarium.
Scientists have yet to determine the cause of death as of Monday afternoon, but the dead calf represents another blow to the critically endangered whale species, which has dwindled to fewer than 360 individuals in recent years.
After seven years on the decline, the global population of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale may be starting to level off, providing a glimpse of hope for the species’ survival.
