Collision With Ship Killed Blue Whale

Preliminary results of a necropsy done on a blue whale carcass that was found floating off the Southern California coast revealed that a ship killed the mammal. The dead blue whale was the third whale found this month. A necropsy done on one of the other blue whales determined that it too died from a collision with a ship. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History says scientists determined that the cranium of the latest whale was smashed and there was extensive damage to its skeleton.Carcass of a 75 foot long, approximately 75 ton blue whale which washed up on a beach about a week after it died. Scientists suspect that its back was broken after an encounter with a cargo ship.The necropsy found that the whale was alive when it was hit by the ship and died instantly. Earlier this month a blue whale carcass washed ashore in Long Beach Harbor, but local officials towed it out to sea before marine wildlife scientists could analyze the tissue. A necropsy on another blue whale that washed ashore in Ventura revealed the mammal died in a collision with a ship.