Researches try to find out why whale beached on South Carolina island

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Monday, researchers were back on Hilton Head Island after a whale beached over the weekend.

They made their first attempts at finding at why the juvenile male came ashore.

“We’re doing an external exam, already finished that this morning, and now we’re doing an internal exam,” said Clay George, a marine mammal biologist with NOAA.

George said the young male was likely already unwell when he hit the shore on Saturday, far from where he should’ve been.

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“It was a sperm whale, which is an endangered type of whale that should typically be way far offshore, 75 miles or more offshore,” said George.

A look inside the mammal will hopefully reveal why he found himself on Hilton Head.

“In particular, we want to understand nay human impacts because those are the things we can actually manage and make a difference,” said George. “So, things like vessel strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, ingestion of plastics and marine debris.”

Since Saturday, locals and visitors, like Steve Ellis, watched it all unfold.

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“We noticed a truck here, and a gang of people and something in the water. And it was the beached whale,” said Ellis.

One of the last things he ever thought he’d find on vacation.

“We’ve been coming to Hilton Head for four decades, and we’ve never seen anything like this,” said Steve Ellis.

Hilton Head’s mayor said once researchers are done taking samples, the whale will be laid to rest near the beach’s dune.

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“It could’ve been an isolated area where it landed and then nothing would have happened, and it would’ve been subject to the environment. So, happy to give it a good place to rest,” said Mayor Alan Perry.

George said it will likely be a while until they have any results.

“They’re collecting a whole bunch of samples that are going to be sent to different labs. And that will help us understand what’s going on at a level that we can’t see, so a microscopic level.,” said George. “It will also help us understand perhaps if it was suffering from any infectious disease. So, it’s a long process because some of those labs take weeks or even months to get the results back.”