A man views a decaying nine-metre humpback whale carcass in Whale Cove, N.S., on Dec. 29, 2016.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
A dead whale has washed up in the same area of western Nova Scotia that has seen scores of dead herring, starfish, clams and lobster litter the shoreline – but fisheries officials say it's too early to say whether the deaths are related.
Jennifer Thibodeau and her husband were driving past the beach on Whale Cove on Tuesday when they spotted what appeared to be a young whale, perhaps nine metres long, near the high water mark.
She said the humpback whale did not appear to have any external injuries that could easily explain its death.
"It's really sad. I was crying about it this morning," said Thibodeau, whose home is about 150 metres from the beach.
"From our house we can look out and watch them jump out of the water in the summertime. You can hear them blow and ... you can see them breach and it's sad to think that's one of those whales that we watched."
Fisheries officials say it's too early to say whether the whale's death is related to a mysterious fish kill that appears to have spread to new species, including starfish, clams, lobsters and mussels now washing ashore alongside thousands of herring.
A Fisheries biologist was gathering samples in sub-tidal areas of St. Marys Bay Thursday to measure oxygen levels in the water near the beaches where herring began washing up about a month ago.
Dead herring have been found in a 100-kilometre swath of western Nova Scotia from St. Marys Bay to Tusket, with most between the mouth of the Sissiboo River and Plympton.
Kent Smedbol, manager of the population ecology division at the Fisheries Department, said it doesn't make much sense to look at whether there is a link between the fish kill and the dead whale until Thursday's sampling is complete.
Smedbol said if the habitat on the ocean floor looks to be in good health, officials would likely rule out any local environmental issue, and it would be unlikely the whale death is related to the fish kill.
But if the sampling reveals a general die-off in the sub-tidal area, then it might make sense to look at whether there is a connection, he said.
Smedbol said the whale has likely been dead for "some time." He said photos suggest there has been decomposition of the whale's interior organs and tissues.