Humpback whale found dead off Haida Gwaii, B.C., was struck by vessel, researcher says

The body of a young humpback whale that was found dead Saturday off the coast of Haida Gwaii, B.C., showed signs of blunt-force trauma consistent with a vessel strike, according to a researcher who was briefed on the initial necropsy report.

Marine researcher Jackie Hildering says the young male humpback was likely about four years old when it died. Researchers have yet to positively identify the whale beyond its sex and approximate age.

Measuring just over 11 metres long, the whale was discovered floating in the Masset Inlet on Saturday, prompting a Fisheries and Oceans Canada mammal response team to travel to the remote archipelago off B.C.'s north coast to investigate.

"The young male humpback did have signs of blunt-force trauma," said Hildering, a humpback specialist and spokesperson for B.C.'s Marine Education and Research Society. "However, there's always the possibility the whale was hit after it died."

Fisheries and Oceans Canada says a final necropsy report may take up to six months to complete.

Shanti Thurber, the Haida Gwaii coordinator for the non-profit conservation group Ocean Wise, was present during the necropsy on Wednesday. She says the body of the young whale was intact and showed no signs of attacks from predators.

However, there was evidence of trauma, and "given the whale's age, I would be surprised if that didn’t have to do with his death," Thurber said. 

Unlike orcas, humpbacks and other baleen whale species cannot use echolocation to hunt or navigate their surroundings, leaving them especially susceptible to vessel strikes, according to Hildering.

"They can be astonishingly oblivious to boats," the researcher said Thursday. "They haven't evolved for the awareness of boats, they don't have the bio-sonar. They can be resting just below the surface and that collides – quite literally – with the absence of knowledge of boaters."

The dead whale was discovered less than two weeks after another humpback was found dead on a remote island north of Port McNeill, B.C.

Initial necropsy reports on that whale, which was found beached on Malcolm Island on Oct. 23, found similar evidence of blunt-force injuries consistent with a vessel strike.

The Malcolm Island whale was identified as "Spike," a female humpback that was first spotted in B.C. waters in 2018.

Hildering says the discovery of the dead humpbacks highlights the need for continued federal protections for another whale species off the B.C. coast.

Fin whales have been protected as a threatened population under the federal Species At Risk Act since 2006.

However, a recent federal assessment based on a 2018 survey of Pacific fin whale numbers could reduce the protections afforded the mammals due to their apparent resurgence in the region.

The federal government has opened public consultations on the potential reclassification of Pacific fin whales from a threatened species to a species of special concern. The survey is open to the public until Dec. 2.

The Marine Education and Research Society says too little is known about the elusive fin whales to reduce their protections at a time when threats to the species, including increased vessel traffic and climate change, are projected to increase.

"The only fin whale that was known to be in the Salish Sea in the last year was hit by a vessel and died," Hildering said. The two-year-old whale was discovered on a remote beach near Pender Harbour, B.C., in March.