52-Ton Sperm Whale Washes Up On Nantucket

Sperm whale that washed up on the north shore of Nantucket. Photo/Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket.

Close up of the open mouth of the sperm whale. Photo/Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket.

Officials on Nantucket are wrestling with what to do with the body of a massive dead sperm whale that washed up on a beach this week.

The deceased sperm whale washed up on a Nantucket beach along the north shore of the island on Sunday, November 16. According to officials with Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket (MMAN), the male sperm whale is roughly 50 feet long and weighs roughly 104,000 pounds, or 52 tons.

The size of the whale is causing problems for both scientists and local officials. Scientists had hoped to move the whale inland so they could perform a full necropsy, but officials determined the whale is just too big to move.

“The conclusion was that this whale was far too big, awkward and heavy to remove from the beach,” stated a post on the MMAN Facebook page. “No amount of equipment could pull it off.”

Sperm whales are protected under the Endangered Species Act. And even though it is dead, the public is required to stay 300 feet away from the whale.

According to a Nantucket Current report, this is the first sperm whale to wash ashore on Nantucket since 2002. That whale was towed to New Bedford, and its skeleton now hangs in the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

On Thursday, November 20, MMAN announced that Nantucket officials had decided to tow the whale carcass out to sea due to health and safety concerns. Officials said allowing decomposition on the beach or eventually washing out was not an option as it would cause a serious hazard to beach goers, swimmers and vessels.

Watch a video on Facebook from the Marine Mammal Alliance of Nantucket.