Middletown, RI (AP) - Even as they mourned the death of a 40-ton specimen of the world's largest animal, scientists have been working hard to preserve pieces of the carcass for research.
The blue whale, which had been floating off the coast, was towed to Second Beach by the Coast Guard.
The whale's skin and blubber were pealed off, and some of its parts - its head, larynx, ear bones and tissue samples - were carted off by scientists. They say it is the first time a blue whale has been found dead along the New England coastline. Only about 300 blue whales, which are an endangered species protected by the federal government, are believed to exist in the northern Atlantic Ocean.
What is special about the stranding on Saturday is that scientists have never had a fully intact specimen of a blue whale to study before, said Dr. Phillip Clapham, a whale specialist at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, Mass.
"This is an incredible, rare event," Clapham told the Providence Journal-Bulletin.
"It's the largest animal ever to live on this planet and we've never had a specimen like this to work with."
Whale specialists from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. and Mystic marine Life Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., were also at Second Beach to take samples of the whale for study. About a dozen scientists will first measure and later dissect the whale as part of the study process.
Middletown Police have posted a 24-hour surveillance of the carcass. The public can view the whale from behind storm barriers set up around the whale.
"Police will watch over the site until the research is complete," said Mike Embury, Middletown's town administrator. "People can look, but they can't touch."
The whale was found by a marine pilot who was on a tanker in Narragansett Bay on Tuesday. He saw the animal wrapped around the ship's bow. Coast Guard officials originally thought it was a finback whale.
Scientists say it is not clear if the blue whale was killed by the ship or if it was struck by the vessel after it was already dead.
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