Dead Sperm Whale Found Near BP Oil Spill

(June 17) -- A dead sperm whale was found floating 77 miles from the Deepwater Horizon spill site in the Gulf of Mexico, and scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are trying to determine whether it was killed by the oil.

The sub-adult whale was found Tuesday by the NOAA ship Pisces in oil-free waters but had been dead from several days to as long as a week and may have floated from contaminated parts of the Gulf, NOAA announced today.

NOAA

The NOAA ship Pisces, shown here, discovered a dead sperm whale floating in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.

"NOAA and the Unified Command Wildlife Branch have had numerous reports of sperm whales seen swimming in the oil, but this is the first confirmed report of a dead whale since the BP oil spill began," the agency said. "NOAA remains concerned about sperm whales, which are the only endangered resident cetaceans in the upper Gulf of Mexico.

Sperm whales spend most of their time in the upper Gulf offshore area, live at depth in areas where subsurface dispersants and oil are present, and feed on deepwater squid, which may also be impacted by the oil and dispersants."

Government investigators are collecting skin swabs from the whale for oil analysis as well as blubber and samples of other parts of the dead mammal, though the decomposed state of its body may make it impossible to confirm if oil was the cause of death. NOAA will also try to rule out ship strikes and entanglement as causes.

A Sperm Whale swims just under the surface of the Caribbean in 2009.

Corbis

It wasn't known whether exposure to oil caused the death of the sperm whale. This sperm whale, seen swimming just under the surface of the Caribbean, was photographed last year.

Most of the carcass was left in the sea but marked so that aerial reconnaissance teams won't mistake it as a new mortality, the agency said.

NOAA has also been investigating whether the spill is responsible for the deaths and illnesses of dolphins.