Are Humans Really That Cruel? Officials Say Human Interaction Caused Death Of Washed Up Whale

Recently, a washed up whale in the New Jersey shore made headlines. The cause of its death? Human interaction. This was suggested after completing a necropsy on the animal. Needless to say, this is sad news for animal and nature lovers especially because another human activity has caused the death of an innocent creature.

According to Fox News, officials believe that the 20-ton and 33-foot whale was hit by a ship after its death. It was already dead when it reached the shore. The necropsy on the animal revealed that it was emaciated.

Nature World News reported that the whale's body did not have marks or any other indications that sharks or other marine predators attacked the animal. According to Bob Schoelkopf of Marine Mammal Stranding Center, there was a possibility that the young whale was sick. Likewise, it might have lost its mother. Schoelkopf is the founding director of the organization.

However, the necropsy done on the washed up whale revealed that its body had a scaring, which suggests that it was entangled in a fishing line. The entanglement may indeed be unbearable; hence the whale became unable to eat. Only a small amount of food was found in its stomach, which explains why it was emaciated. Officials believe that such situation may have caused its death.

For quite some time already, entanglement has been deemed the most dominant reason of whale deaths next to ship strikes. According to a recent study, it caused 85 percent of the death of whales from 2010 to 2015.

Meanwhile, the whale is said to have died four to five days before being washed up in Sea Isle City. After the necropsy was completed, it was properly buried.

While humans did not directly hurt the washed up whale, the fact that fishing-line entanglement was the suggested cause of its death indicates that some human activities are indeed harmful to various creatures; not to mention the earlier stated fact that entanglement is among the leading causes of whale deaths.