Federal officials are investigating after a whale was found dead on the bow of a container ship that was docked at a South Jersey port on the Delaware River.
The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said it is analyzing the mammal, believed to be a fin whale between 25 and 30 feet long, after it was lodged on the ship that arrived in Gloucester City.
The stranding was reported to the U.S. Coast Guard around 11:15 p.m. Sunday, the nonprofit center said. The Coast Guard was reached by NJ Advance Media for comment, but a request for further information was not immediately fulfilled.
A spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed its Office of Law Enforcement is investigating but declined to comment further.
Fins are the second-largest whale species, next to the blue whale, and are found in deep portions of the world’s oceans, according to NOAA. The species is considered endangered.
The ship was berthed at the Gloucester Marine Terminal, a 125-acre port at the base of the Walt Whitman Bridge linking New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It’s managed by Gloucester Terminals LLC but owned by Holt Logistics, a family-owned port company based in the greater Philadelphia area.
The ship was carrying produce from South America when it ended its route in South Jersey, Leo Holt, president and CEO of Holt Logistics, told NJ Advance Media. It last deported a dock in Panama before landing in the U.S., Holt said.
The company did not anticipate disruptions to port operations because of the investigation, Holt said.
“We don’t see any rerouting of vessels,” Holt said. “We believe that the regulatory agencies will be able to undertake their missions without disruption to the supply chain.”
The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said its volunteer team was preparing to perform a necropsy, a study in which the whale’s cause of death is investigated. A staging area was being set up to secure the carcass, the stranding center said.
A photo shared by the center shows the whale slumped over on the ship’s bow with its fin raised. The photograph appears to show the ship docked at one of the commercial ports along the Delaware River, with part of the Philadelphia skyline in the background.
Michele Pagel, the center’s assistant director, did not have additional information about the whale death but called the investigation an “active situation.”
The Gloucester City area is often a busy travel route for commercial shipping, as several ports line the river, with service between New Jersey and Philadelphia.