Another whale carcass found at Assateague Island, DNR officials say

BALTIMORE - The carcass of a beached whale was discovered last week along Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Officers with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police said a dead subadult male humpback whale was found on the north end of Assateague Island National Seashore last Wednesday, January 31.

"National Park Service staff moved the carcass out of the tidal zone to a more accessible location, and a necropsy was conducted Feb. 2 by staff and volunteers of the Maryland DNR Stranding Response Program and the National Aquarium," Maryland DNR spokesperson Gregg Bortz said.

Bortz said a definitive cause of death was unable to be determined during the examination and samples are being shipped for diagnostic analysis. 

According to WJLA in Washington, D.C., it was the second beached whale carcass found in the area within three weeks.

In 2023, 37 humpback whales were discovered dead along the East Coast, according to data.  

The string of whale deaths comes as Maryland officials work to construct the state's first offshore wind projects.

Baltimore wind energy firm US Wind is developing two projects, the MarWin project and the Momentum Wind project. 

Those two projects will be constructed 20 miles off the coast of Maryland on an Atlantic Ocean site located just northeast of Assateague Island National Seashore.

"I think there are a lot of geographic benefits that the state of Maryland has that make us prepared to be an offshore wind leader, but it's also about the measure of entrepreneurial activity and vigor that we have in the state of Maryland that we want to compete," Gov. Moore said. "We think this is not only an industry we won't just compete in, but an industry that we can win in."