“I basically hold his tools,” jokes Cottrell,
who is Raverty’s right-hand man during
such procedures. He also takes notes
of the veterinary pathologist’s verbal
comments as the necropsy unfolds.
Cottrell and Lehnhart measure
today’s whale. The length is 7.82 metres,
suggesting a juvenile about two years
old. With the preliminary inspection
over, it’s time to start slicing.
Raverty and Lehnhart use their
knives to carve off heavy rectangular
chunks of blubber and skeletal muscle
to access the internal organs.
Thick blubber suggests the young
humpback had been getting plenty of
food. This sets him apart from the 215
grey whales—many, emaciated—that
washed ashore in 2019 on the west
coast of North America, from Mexico
to Alaska. The poor condition could be
a sign that the estimated population of
27,000 grey whales is at carrying capac-
ity in the eastern North Pacific or that
2018 conditions in the Bering Strait pro-
vided insufficient food for the whales
prior to their southerly migration.
This humpback carcass has been
rotting away for perhaps a week, includ-
ing the time before it washed ashore.
With the exterior blubber removed,
Raverty plunges his knife deep into
the whale’s side. The odour that fol-
lows is repulsive. But Raverty has
toughened up over the years. “I can’t
smell it anymore,” he says. “I’ve gotten
used to it, I guess.” As Raverty pushes
the knife ever deeper, the mystery ofthis humpback deepens, too. The
gonads and the internal organs have
shifted from the abdominal cavity to the
throat and chest. There are two poten-
tial explanations for this: blunt-force
trauma, or the buildup of extreme
internal pressure after death.
Next, Raverty proceeds past the ribs
to expose the heart and lungs, which
resemble a big slab of corned beef. One
rib protrudes from the body like a piece
of driftwood, next to coils of large intes-
tines as thick as Raverty’s forearms and
measuring perhaps 10 metres in length.
He announces he’s found the urin-
ary bladder, too, but it’s lacking the
urine he typically samples to screen for
indication of muscle injury, harmful
algal toxins and faulty kidney function.at 2:20 p.m., it’s lunchtime—and, yes,
sushi is off the menu. We dine on sprout
sandwiches, cookies and apples. “I’ve
tried bowhead whale meat,” Lehnhart
offers as small talk. “It’s not very good.”
The hard physical work over, Cottrell
and Lehnhart discard their stained cov-
eralls for new ones as the necropsy shifts
gears. “Round two, I’m ready,” Cottrell
says. The team collects several tissue
samples, ranging from two to 10 centi-
metres in thickness, and places them
into sterile plastic bags, chilled with
ice packs, to be lab tested for bacteria,
fungi, viruses and harmful algal toxins
such as domoic acid and saxitoxin.
Domoic acid can be poisonous to
marine mammals such as Californiareader’s digest
74 april 2020