Whale found off Camano Island likely killed by ship

A large ship likely struck and killed the gray whale found Sunday floating off Camano Island State Park. Necropsy results showed Wednesday evening that a ship strike is most likely to blame for the otherwise healthy whale's death, said Susan Berta of Greenbank-based Orca Network.Unfortunately, that's a common story, Berta said. "Even if (a big ship) can see a whale, it can't stop or change its course." Howard Garrett dove into the 30-ton dead gray whale to learn what caused its death.The Orca Network's co-founder, joined a team of about a dozen specialists who performed a necropsy on a decomposing carcass the size of a school bus.It was towed to a restricted Navy beach on Whidbey Island on Tuesday.Volunteers coordinated by the Central Puget Sound Marine Mammal Stranding Network had just a short window Wednesday to find out why the whale died. The tide began creeping toward their feet by 5 p.m.This is the first time Garrett witnessed a necropsy, and he's excited by the opportunity to see the anatomy of the whale."Whale anatomy shows every organ in huge proportions," he said. "It's a fascinating experience."He was also aware that slicing into a decomposing, bloated whale would be a stinky job. He dabbed mentholated rub under his nostrils, a la FBI agent Clarice Starling in "The Silence of the Lambs," and tied a kerchief around his face."Every minute the sun hits it, it heats up," he said. "The decomposition produces a big whale balloon."Decomposition also produces quite a smell."You get smart and stand upwind," Berta said.Volunteers cut off the whale's head and took its skull and its baleen, the comblike mouth plates that the whales use to strain food from the sea. The bones and baleen will be preserved to show to schoolkids.The second gray whale found dead in Birch Bay earlier this week also was healthy and died from some kind of trauma, Berta said. Specialists found no connection between the two deaths.