Dead 30-foot humpback whale washes up off Currituck Outer Banks

photo courtesy Harrison McLaughlin

As the waves continue to churn from a storm system off the coast, the remains of a humpback whale washed up along the beach off the Currituck Outer Banks over the weekend.

Karen Clark, program coordinator with the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education in Corolla, said the remains had first washed up late Friday evening before coming to rest Saturday off Pine Island.

According to Clark, the whale was a 30-foot-long juvenile female and that the partially-decomposed remains had taken a battering from being in the surf zone so long.

She said they are working with Currituck County on plans for disposal. That may not happen until the waves calm down, which forecasts call for later this week.

The remains of an 18-foot-long male humpback whale washed up in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday ahead of the extended onshore blow.

To report any sighting or stranded marine mammal on the Outer Banks from Corolla to South Nags Head, call OBX Stranding Response Line at 252-455-9654. Along the beaches of Cape Hatteras National Seashore from Coquina Beach to Ocracoke, the number is 252-216-6892.

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Sam Walker was news director for OBXToday.com, Beach 104, 99.1 The Sound, Big 94.5 WCMS and Z 92.3 from August 2011 to March 2022.