Several whales and other marine animals were seen off the Vineyard shores this week, a sign that summer is approaching.

A decomposing humpback whale was seen beached but still in the surf on South Beach Monday, and a second humpback was found on East Beach on Chappaquiddick Tuesday morning.

The humpback whale that washed up at Norton Point beach Dec. 4 likely died from gear entanglement, a preliminary examination has determined.

The carcass of a North Atlantic humpback whale was discovered on the shore of Norton Point beach by a passerby Friday. The carcass was carried east by the storm this weekend.

The deaths of 13 North Atlantic right whales in the United States and Canada this year is being considered an unusual mortality event, triggering an investigation into the cause.

Researchers are analyzing samples taken from a dead humpback whale that washed up on the south shore of Martha’s Vineyard this week.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

A badly decomposed 37-foot young humpback whale washed up on South Beach on Friday night.

Sgt. Matthew Bass of the state environmental police said the whale was first spotted in the wash Friday afternoon, in an out of reach on a private beach near Job’s Neck Pond.

A juvenile humpback whale that made an errant visit and got stuck in Katama Bay on Sunday afternoon is believed to be okay and swimming the ocean. A group of Islanders, with help from the staff of the New England Aquarium, were able to monitor and eventually see the whale as it swam out into Nantucket Sound late Monday morning.

The 20-foot-plus whale, weighing 10 tons or more, was first spotted on Sunday afternoon by staff of The Trustees of Reservations at Norton Point. At the time it was thought the marine mammal was entangled and in distress in Katama Bay.

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.

Several shoals of fin-back and hump-back whales were seen a day or two since from five to fifteen miles south-east of Noman’s Land, Vineyard Sound. They were in sight nearly all day on Thursday, and were in shoals of about fifteen.