A humpback whale carcass which ran aground in Plymouth last week was autopsied and immediately buried Friday, said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, Executive Director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation North America.

“When an animal is so young, it’s not normal for it to come back dead,” Asmutis-Silvia said. “We want to know what’s going on.”

The dead whale stranded on Bayside Beach on December 9. The whale was secured on site with a rope and an anchor. Scientists needed time, Asmutis-Silvia said, to take external measurements of the whale.

“A storm was coming on Wednesday and we didn’t want the whale to go back to sea,” she said.

On Friday, the whale was transported to Bourne where a necropsy, or autopsy of the animal, was carried out. The autopsy lasted four to five hours. The whale was later buried in Bourne, near MacArthur Boulevard, Asmutis-Silvia said.

Autopsy results could take up to 12 weeks, she said. “There were scratches and external injuries. We want to understand whether these injuries occurred before or after the animal died.”

In Brewster, the carcass of another humpback whale washed up on the beach between Crosby Landing Beaches and Linnell Landing Beaches the weekend of December 14 and 15. Stacey Hedman, director of communications for International Fund for Animal Welfaresaid the animal was a 34-foot juvenile female weighing approximately 18 tons or 36,000 pounds.

Since January 2016, a growing number of humpback whale deaths occurred along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

What will an autopsy reveal?

An autopsy is being carried out to establish the cause of death, Asmutis-Silvia said.

Some people assume that whale deaths are automatically associated with accidental ship strikes or fishing rope entanglements, Asmutis-Silvia said. But whales suffer from other health problems, such as viruses and bacterial infections, which can lead to death, she said.

According to Asmutis-Silvia, five large stranded whales died recently along the coast between Weymouth and Plymouth. One whale died following a collision with a ship, she said, and another could not be autopsied, she said. Necropsy results for the other three whales are currently pending.

There have also been seals and dolphins stranded locally, Asmutis-Silvia said, which have been infected with the H1N1 virus, more commonly known as avian flu, she said.

“Understanding what’s happening in the ocean can be important from a human health perspective,” Asmutis-Silvia said.

What does it take to bury a whale?

Once the necropsy is completed, the animal is immediately buried. If a whale is suffering from an infectious disease, it is important to keep it away from other wildlife in the area to avoid an outbreak.

Burying an animal weighing about 11 tons is a monumental job, Asmutis-Silvia said. Recently, a minke whale was buried on a beach. Scientists had to bury it deep enough that tides couldn’t erode it and expose the carcass.

It “requires some serious, heavy equipment,” she said, to dig a hole big enough for a whale and contain it safely if it’s moved from one place to another.

“Many trucks need to be large enough to cross roads without anything coming out of the truck during transport,” Asmutis-Silvia said.

Transportation and burial can cost between $3,000 and $5,000, Asmutis-Silvia said.

A changing world

The costs associated with studying a dead whale can be significant, Asmutis-Silvia said. But it’s important, she says, to understand how to help keep marine life healthy.

In addition to climate change, whales are also changing habitat and moving to different locations in search of food, she explained.

“What we don’t have between Plymouth and Weymouth are wind energy studies or construction underway for wind energy,” she said.

It’s frustrating to Asmutis-Silvia that people associate whale deaths with wind technology.

“It’s heartbreaking to do this work in the first place, but it’s frustrating to tie the death to a political agenda. It’s not going to help save other animals,” she said. “We want to base our findings on science and understand how these animals died to gain information that can help other animals.”

Rachael Devaney writes about community and culture. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @RachaelDevaney.

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This article was originally published on Cape Cod Times: Why examine a humpback whale carcass? Plymouth scientist explains