US agency runs out of disposal places for dead whales

Duat Mai stands atop a dead whale at Ocean Beach in San Francisco in May. Photo / AP file

At least one Washington state waterfront landowner has said yes to a request to allow dead grey whales to decompose on their property.

So many grey whale carcasses have washed up this year that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries says it has run out of places to take them.

In response, the agency has asked landowners to volunteer property as a disposal site for the carcasses. By doing so, landowners can support the natural process of the marine environment, and skeletons left behind can be used for educational purposes, officials said.

But the carcasses can be up to 12m-long. That's a lot to decay, and it could take months. Landowner Mario Rivera of Port Hadlock, Washington, told KING5-TV that the smell is intermittent and "isn't that bad."

"It is really a unique opportunity to have this here on the beach and monitor it and see how fast it goes," said his wife, Stefanie Worwag.

The federal agency said that about 30 whales have stranded on Washington's coast this year, the most in two decades.

On the US West coast, about 70 whales have been found dead this year along California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, the most since 2000.

About five were found on British Columbia beaches.

Still, that's a small fraction of the total number because most sink or wash up in remote areas and are unrecorded.

NOAA Fisheries late last month declared the die-off an "unusual mortality event," and provided additional resources to respond to the deaths.

"With the unusual mortality event of these grey whales, we know more whales will be coming in, or there is a high likelihood that more whales will die within Puget Sound and out on the coast," said Port Townsend Marine Science Centre Citizen Science Coordinator Betsy Carlson.

Officials say the grey whale population remains strong at about 27,000.

Lime is being used to help break down the whale carcass on the beach near where Rivera and Worwag live.

"The lime appears to be working," Rivera said. "It is decomposing nicely. I think."

- AP