A dead humpback whale calf was found in the New Meadows River in Phippsburg on Friday, according to Marine Mammals of Maine.
The organization received a report late Friday afternoon about the whale and when staff members responded, they expected to find a large whale, as they had been getting calls over the past several months about large whales being close to shore.
However, when the response team arrived, they found a female humpback whale calf that had died within the past couple of hours, according to the group.
The whale was transported to another site where a necropsy was conducted on Saturday. The whale was between 6 and 9 months old, still dependent upon its mother, and measured 20 feet long. She was emaciated with very little muscle or fat and had few stomach contents.
Samples collected from the necropsy will be sent for further laboratory analysis.
“Our hope is to connect the community with this calf and her species and foster marine stewardship, and maximize our resources to learn and share as much as possible about her stranding with the scientific community,” Marine Mammals of Maine executive director Lynda Doughty said in a social media post.