Remains cleared after humpback whale washes ashore near Georgetown

GEORGETOWN, SC (WCIV) — A humpback whale washed ashore Thursday afternoon near Georgetown. The non-profit Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network arrived on Friday to assess the remains.

According to the organization, the whale was reported floating near the shore at approximately 3:30 p.m. Thursday and became beached shortly after at 4:15 p.m.

Through help from the Georgetown county sheriff’s department, who worked to keep pets and people at a safe distance, LMMN volunteers were able to quickly document the initial stranding with measurements and photos until more trained officials could arrive the following day.

According to a comment on their Facebook post the whale showed advanced stages of decomposition with lots of signs of scavenging.

In an updated post, LMMN said the whale was “heavily scavenged and in a state of decomposition so we couldn’t determine disease. Our goal today was to look for any broken bones. Although we could not examine the entire skeleton what we did examine was intact, although we could not determine a cause of death, we were still able to collect good information about the species.”