The fin whale is the second largest whale species on earth. Rhode Island DEM.
Yesterday, an onlooker captured stunning footage of a massive fin whale that became stranded in a tidal area near Naragansett, Rhode Island. In an Instagram post shared by Spear-It Charters, the enormous whale is seen struggling for air while a person films from behind a line of caution tape on a nearby pier. According to a recent update from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM), wildlife officials put the whale out of its misery around 9 p.m. last night.
According to officials, the marine mammal weighed approxiamntely 25,000 pounds and stretched more than 40 feet in length, but it was already starving to death by the time the RIDEM attempted to intervene.
“Whales are magnificent creatures and it’s very sad when these circumstances occur,” said Scott Olszewski, a marine biologist and Deputy Chief of the DEM Division of Marine Fisheries. “Given this fin whale’s extremely compromised state, intervening medically was the most humane way of easing its suffering.”
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Officials euthanized the whale around 9:20 p.m., according to a RIDEM Instagram post. While they described the whale’s death as sad turn of events, they say it’ll offer scientists said “a rare opportunity to gather valuable information, which, hopefully, can be used to protect these animals from further endangerment.”
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