The last place you would expect to find a killer whale is the University of Florida.
Nevertheless, one was laid to rest at a secret location on the campus in Gainesville.
The killer whale was found on Jan. 11 in Palm Coast, Florida. Upon discovery, several agencies responded, including Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute, SeaWorld Orlando, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Killer whales, or orca whales, are not commonly found off the coast of the Southeast United States. The last recorded strandings in the region were in Okaloosa County, Florida in 1956 and Summerland Key, Florida in 1948, Erin Fougeres said. Fougeres, who has a doctorate in marine biology, is the marine mammal stranding program administrator for NOAA fisheries in the Southeast region.
“We do know they’re out there, we just don’t get them stranded very often, so it’s a surprise and a very interesting animal to recover,” she said.
It appeared to be alive when it first stranded, but died before crews could get there, Fougeres said.
The crews transported the killer whale to a lab at SeaWorld where they performed a necropsy, or animal autopsy. They confirmed that it was an older female and there was some evidence of illness. Tissue samples have been sent out for testing to determine what specific illness and if it caused the death of the whale.
On Jan. 12, after the necropsy, it was transported to a secret research facility at the University of Florida, Jason Byrd said. At this facility, scientists study the decomposition of the creature and its effect on the environment.
Byrd, a professor at the William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, sees this as a rare opportunity to collaborate with NOAA.
“It’s research that really can’t be simulated,” he said.
Their studies also help the legal system. Scientists can investigate postmortem artifacts, possible evidence of puncture or gunshot wounds to determine whether the death was natural or caused by humans.
The last killer whale to be stranded in the Southeast in 1956 was too decomposed for scientists to determine its cause of death based on tissue samples. However, a neat round hole was found in the skull, suggesting it may have been shot, according to an article published by the Florida Academy of Sciences, Inc.
