The carcass of a sperm whale washed ashore on Nantucket, prompting recovery operations Sunday by officials and wildlife groups, according to a local nonprofit. <\/p>\n
The whale is male and likely a juvenile, said Pam Murphy, executive director of the Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket<\/a>, a volunteer-led non-profit that monitors and protects marine mammals. <\/p>\n Murphy said that MMAN is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Massachusetts Environmental Police to recover the carcass, which is about 40 to 50 feet long. <\/p>\n Murphy said officials were able to secure the carcass to anchors on shore \u201cas well as possible.\u201d But she said the carcass is still 15 to 20 feet from the shoreline at low tide and is \u201crolling, which makes access dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe hope to be able to bring it ashore with the help of a local heavy machinery operator,\u201d she said. Murphy said The organization hopes to conduct a necropsy on the carcass Tuesday. <\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t immediately clear what may have killed the whale, which Murphy said had a \u201cdeep\u201d abdominal wound. She said the carcass was bloated, and estimated the whale had been dead for about four days.<\/p>\n Officials at NOAA and the state Environmental Police did not immediately return requests for comment Sunday.<\/p>\n Sperm whales are classified as endangered<\/a>, and several state and federal laws aim to protect the species from hunting, entanglement, and vessel strikes<\/a>. <\/p>\n Emily Spatz can be reached at emily.spatz@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her on X @emilymspatz<\/a>.<\/p>\n