Dead minke whale washes up on New Brunswick shoreline

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is investigating the discovery of a dead minke whale that washed up earlier this week on a beach on the Acadian Peninsula in northeastern New Brunswick.

Residents first noticed the whale on Tuesday evening off the shore of Cap-Bateau, in the community of Lamèque.

A spokesperson for DFO confirmed the dead whale is a minke and said more information would be released at a later time. 

Denise Thibodeau was walking along the beach at Cap-Bateau around 6 p.m. on Tuesday when she first spotted the whale, several metres offshore. 

Armandine Haché, who lives next to the beach, saw the dead minke around midday Wednesday, when it was closer to the beach. She said she reported the sighting to authorities and saw fisheries officers on the scene Wednesday afternoon.

Both women estimate the whale to be between 6 and 7.6 metres long (20 to 25 feet).

“We’ve been there for 55 years and this is the first time we’ve seen it,” Haché told Radio-Canada in French.

Denise Thibodeau, who’s lived in the area for eight years, also said she’s never seen a beached whale before.

“I was surprised and sad at the same time,” she said.

One of ‘most abundant’

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a U.S. government science agency,  the number of minke whales is considered stable. 

“Minke whales are members of the baleen or ‘great’ whale family and are the smallest of the rorquals,” its website says. Rorquals are the largest group of baleen whales.

“They are one of the most abundant rorqual in the world, and their population status is considered stable throughout almost their entire range.”

They can grow to more than 10 metres (about 35 feet) and live up to 50 years. 

A request for more information from the agency was unanswered by publication time.