This is sad news.

It is 100% confirmed that a Juvenile Humpback Whale known as #NYC0044 (#44) in the NYC Humpback Whale Catalog has died. #44 was found dead off of Chatham Mass.

 http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20170621/2-humpback-whales-die-off-chatham

This is copied from the “Cape Cod Times” due to the link may not work sometime in the future. (All photos on this blog are captured by me.)

Wednesday Jun 21, 2017 at 5:21 PM Jun 21, 2017 at 8:40 PM by Doug Fraser @dougfrasercct

CHATHAM — A team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare was on Monomoy on Wednesday investigating the death of two humpback whales. A young humpback was reported to have washed up Tuesday on the beach on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, said IFAW spokeswoman Melanie Mahoney. The team went out Wednesday hoping to visually evaluate the whale or conduct a necropsy depending on the condition of the body.

“While out examining the stranded humpback whale, our team received a report of another stranded dead whale on Monomoy,” Mahoney wrote in an email. “The team was able to hike out and assess the animal. It was found to be alive and in poor condition.” The second whale was euthanized and the team began an assessment of the 27-foot-long animal, according to Mahoney. “Test results and cause of death are still pending and unknown at this time,” she wrote. Spotter pilot Wayne Davis captured an image of a humpback whale in shallow water near a group of seals off Monomoy last week, according to a post on the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's Facebook.

NYC - September 09^th 2016. Gotham Whale was on the American Princess and met up with #44 off of Deal NJ. The pictures below are of that encounter.

#44 was going nuts lunge feeding and Breaching the whole time we were with it. Coincidentally, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) with NOAA happened to be out on a chartered fishing boat trying to tag Humpback whales for the first time in the NYC area. WCS asked us to inform them if we see any Humpbacks and the Captains of the AP obliged with the coordinates of the whale.

WCS quickly arrived at our location and stayed with us watching #44. WCS and NOAA determined that #44 was a juvenile humpback whale and wanted to tag adult humpbacks not juveniles so they passed on tagging #NYC0044. As we were with #44 we saw another Humpback whale that was larger. This was the size of whale WCS and NOAA were wanting to tag. The AP Captains extended the Whale and Dolphin Adventure to assist WCS and NOAA in the tagging of the humpback but even with the extended time, conditions were not perfect for tagging and the whale was not tagged, we had to go.

RIP #NYC0044 Your number has been retired, thanks for making our day with the spectacular lunge feedings and breaches.