Beached fin whale at Delaware Seashore State Park dies; necropsy to be performed

The 50-foot fin whale that beached itself at Delaware State Park on Sunday died overnight.

Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute volunteers and Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control employees are working to move the whale to perform a necropsy to determine the cause of death, MERR board member Rob Rector said Monday morning. The whale will then be buried on the beach.

They can work only as the tide allows, Rector said, because the area of the beach where the whale died, just north of the Indian River Inlet, is a very narrow stretch. It's in the area where the ocean breached the dunes during a storm a few months ago.

The whale was an emaciated sub-adult, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman said Sunday.

"This is a species that lives way off the coast, so they would never come in near shore, except when they get too weak to be able to surface to breathe and their instinct is to get out of the water," she said.

Thurman hoped to at least sedate the whale, she said, but the water level made it too dangerous.

"With the water going around her, she can roll on us and we would be killed," Thurman said.

Reports of the beached whale started coming in Sunday morning. MERR, a Lewes-based nonprofit, responded to the area and set up a perimeter. Hundreds of people came to the beach to see the ocean's second-largest whale.

Many people even parked on the side of Coastal Highway and walked across the dunes to get a glimpse. The dunes serve not only as protection for the road but as a delicate ecosystem for wildlife.

"Delaware Natural Resources Police remind the public that crossing the dune to try and get a better view of the beached whale is prohibited and can result in a fine," department spokesman Michael Globetti said in a statement.

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The last whale to beach itself in Delaware was in 2021 when another fin whale died at Cape Henlopen State Park. In that case, Rector said, the cause of death was intestinal parasites.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.