Dead whale identified on Block Island

NEW SHOREHAM, RI (WPRI) — The Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) has successfully identified the dead whale that washed up on the shores of Block Island.

Mystic Aquarium’s Animal Rescue Program staff took tissue samples, measurements and photographed the whale on Monday. The photos were sent to the CCS to verify that the whale was included in the center’s Gulf of Maine humpback whale catalog.

The adult female was identified as a whale named Binary. According to CCS, Binary was first encountered in the late 1980s.

According to CCS, Binary has had at least nine calves over the years. She has been regularly seen feeding in the Gulf of Maine and has also been seen in the breeding grounds of the West Indies.

Before it washed ashore on Block Island, the last binary sighting was in 2022, according to CCS.

In a press release, the CCS said Binary’s death was part of an “unusual mortality event” that has been occurring along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida since 2016.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Binary is the eleventh whale to die in this unusual mortality event in Rhode Island waters.

For more information on this unusual death, click here. If you ever come across a stranded or entangled marine mammal or turtle, call the 24-hour hotline at 860-572-5955 x107.