She had enchanted the people of Montreal in Canada. The humpback whale, whose jumps had attracted hundreds of onlookers in Quebec’s largest city in recent weeks, was found dead in the St. Lawrence River on Tuesday. The cause of death for this humpback whale remains unknown at this time.
The cetacean’s corpse had been seen Tuesday morning by the pilot of a boat, a few tens of kilometers east of the Quebec metropolis, near the town of Varennes.
“Early this morning a commercial ship pilot reported a whale carcass“, confirmed Marie-Eve Muller, spokesperson for the Quebec emergency network for marine mammals (RQUMM). “It is very likely that it is the same whale seen in Montreal a few days ago“, she added.
Drifting in the river, the whale was finally towed by a boat from the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans to Sainte-Anne-de-Sorel, about 80 km east of Montreal, from where it was slid on the bank using a crane, in front of several hundred curious people.
It was initially to be hoisted by the tail on the trailer of a truck to be transported to the metropolis of Quebec, but the maneuver finally failed. The young whale was left on the shore and the police erected a safety cordon around it for the night.
A necropsy must be performed on site Wednesday morning by a team of veterinarians from the University of Montreal to determine the causes of his death, said the RQUMM.
The whale, about 10 meters long and whose age is estimated to be between two and three years old, was seen in late May in the St. Lawrence River in front of the city of Montreal. Several hundred curious people came to observe its developments for several days in front of the Vieux-Port, near the Jacques-Cartier bridge.
The Quebec metropolis, in fresh water, is more than 400 kilometers from the cetacean’s natural habitat and it is the first time in more than a hundred years that a whale of this size has been observed so high in the river, according to the specialists.
The pilot of the boat who discovered the carcass on Tuesday morning, Simon Lebrun, explained to Radio-Canada that he had “glimpse of blood or deformities“, which would rule out the possibility of a collision with a ship.
Experts hoped that the young whale, which had not been seen since Sunday, finds alone “the way back to his own“, explained Mrs. Muller.
According to the RQUMM, a humpback whale can measure from 13 to 17 meters and weigh up to 40 tonnes in adulthood.
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