Mike Kersula and his volunteer work crew noticed a bad smell as they approached the beach on Enchanted Island by boat two weeks ago.
Then a crew member realized that what had looked like a ledge was bobbing up and down in the water along the small island about five miles south of Stonington.
As they landed, it became clear: a 43-foot adolescent male fin whale was decomposing on the shore, riddled with shark bites.
The whale arrived, and likely remains, on Enchanted Island after washing ashore and then floating away from several other islands in the Merchant’s Row archipelago since at least late July. Its cause of death will likely remain a mystery.
Dead fin whale reports are fairly rare in Maine, though marine mammal carcasses traveling this way aren’t. The sightings also came as dozens of unusual live humpback whale sightings have delighted near-shore onlookers around Penobscot Bay this summer.
“I think it’s a reminder that [whales] are not invincible,” said Kersula, who’s also had several humpback encounters recently.
Fin whales are the second-largest whale species in the world, with adults in the north Atlantic reaching 70 feet, and are listed as federally endangered. Federal law requires response to reported strandings of marine mammals, including whales, through a network of local institutions. From Rockland to the Canadian border, those are handled by Allied Whale at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.
This fin whale was first reported at McGlathery Island, which the same land trust manages, on July 22 and on neighboring Spruce Island the following day, according to Rosemary Seton, marine mammal stranding coordinator for Allied Whale. Photos confirmed it was the same one.
It’s fairly rare to find dead fin whales on the coast in Maine, likely because they often live far offshore, Seton said. In 26 years at her job, she has seen only three.
The most recent washed up alive but evidently sick in Steuben on Thanksgiving 2023 and died soon after, its skeleton later reassembled to hang above the tasting room at the Maine Beer Co. in Freeport as an educational installation. A dead humpback whale was also reported near Steuben this summer.
Sea conditions prevented an investigation of the Merchant’s Row carcass for several days, according to Seton. A team went to Spruce Island on July 27, but the whale was too decomposed by the time it was reported to determine a cause of death.
Allied Whale could not do a full examination or necropsy — an animal autopsy — because of the whale’s “precarious position” in the intertidal zone, Seton said.
Causes of death usually can’t be determined for whales, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Jooke Robbins, who directs the Humpback Whale Studies Program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Mass., told the BDN last month that a number of whales have been struck by boats or had problems with fishing gear along the East Coast this summer.
The carcass’ Maine island travels as it decays are not unusual, either. The same pattern has happened with other whales and dead seals borne from shore to shore by factors such as the tide, currents and storm surges, Seton said.
The whale’s time on Spruce Island from late July into the first week of August was documented on a Facebook page dedicated to the island, which says it’s privately owned and operated as a vacation rental.
On Aug. 2, the carcass left Spruce Island with the high tide, got caught on a pot buoy off No Man’s Island and then drifted back to Spruce when a storm brought strong winds from the south that broke it free, one post said.
That met with some negative comments about suggesting the carcass became entangled in fishing gear. The federal government has pushed for gear changes in response to whale entanglements, which Maine fishermen have generally fiercely opposed.
By Aug. 4, the whale left Spruce Island again and was reported about a mile to the east on Enchanted Island. No further reports have been made since last week, and it likely remains there, Seton said Wednesday.
Last week, another Maine Coast Heritage Trust employee staying in a cabin on nearby Saddleback Island, also managed by the trust, reported to Kersula that the whale was still in place — but somehow had seemed to do a flip, rotating 180 degrees.
The smell would be noticeable to beach visitors, Kersula said, though the small island doesn’t get many — five or so in an average day, up to 30 at the absolute peak of the season. But if the wind was coming from the southwest, they probably wouldn’t want to stay.
“Honestly, as someone who’s worked on lobster boats in the past, it didn’t smell that bad,” he said. “It was like medium fresh bait level…Certainly, for my helpers from Oklahoma, it was overwhelming.”
Finding the whale was a heavy experience, but for Kersula, crossing paths with such a magnificent animal — even in death — also helped to underline the awe that can be found in preserved natural areas.
“It makes you feel like you’re in a grandness of nature that’s still encounterable,” he said. “It’s pretty special that we have these spaces for these encounters.”
