Cruise Ship Docks in NYC with Endangered Deceased Whale Attached to Bow
Last weekend, the MSC Cruises ship Meraviglia sailed into a New York City harbor, returning from a trip in the Caribbean. It should have been an easy, uneventful conclusion to another successful Caribbean cruise. However, their arrival took a chilling turn when the crew made a disturbing discovery- they'd unknowingly dragged in the large body of a dead whale on the ship's bow.
Worse still, the whale was a sei whale, an endangered species whose numbers have been negatively impacted by commercial fishing and maritime industries over the years. In the aftermath of this awful find, investigators are still trying to figure out what led to this tragic turn of events.
According to @cbsnews, local marine biologists examined the body of the 44-foot female whale and discovered numerous injuries to her right side. They noted extensive tissue trauma to her right shoulder blade and a fractured right flipper. The examination team, led by the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, also found a belly full of food, reports The Washington Post, ruling out starvation as a cause.
NOAA spokesperson Andrea Gomez told WaPo that biologists took bone and tissue samples to test for biotoxins and diseases. Their findings could help investigators determine whether the sei whale died upon impact with the cruise ship, or if she was already dead before the collision.
The Sad Truth About Whales and Cruises
Though the cause of death has yet to be determined, there is an unfortunate precedent for sei whales and other whale species being killed by boat strikes. According to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, around 30 large baleen whales were discovered stranded or dead off the coastlines of New York and New Jersey last year. Of the sixteen whales that were examined postmortem, boat strikes or undetermined blunt force trauma were suspected in at least 13 of them.
And these numbers only account for the New York/New Jersey area for one year. The conservationist organization Friends of the Sea estimates that collisions with cargo, cruise, and fishing vessels kill at least 20,000 whales every year worldwide. Ironically, Friends of the Sea also assigned MSC Cruises the "Whale-Safe Award" in 2022 for the measures the company took to prevent whale strikes, such as implementing whale-safe technology and employing "robust sustainability principles."
The accidental killing of any whale is tragic, especially an endangered and internationally-protected species like the sei whale. The sei whale population is still recovering after hundreds of thousands of them were killed by the commercial whaling industry before international protection was implemented.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of any marine life," an MSC Cruises spokesperson told USA Today. "We have comprehensive measures in place to help avoid collisions, such as training all our deck officers with the Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) and we follow regulations designed to protect whales and other marine life. This includes altering itineraries in certain regions to avoid whales, and we will continue to evaluate and update our procedures with our partners and the authorities."
For more WanderWisdom updates, be sure to follow us on Google News!
Have you had a funny, interesting, or just highly memorable experience while traveling? We'd love for you to submit a video of your travels for a chance to be featured on WanderWisdom and our social channels! Click here to upload your clip and share your adventures with the world.
