ANCHORAGE (Alaska) - THE carcass of a dead humpback whale that was brought into Alaska's Port of Valdez on the bulbous bow of an oil tanker has been towed out to sea.
The tanker contracted a fishing vessel to drag the whale out of port on Wednesday.
The charter's captain, Mr Bernie Culbertson, tells the Valdez Star he plans to let go of the carcass about 70 miles (112 kilometres) south of Valdez.
A tanker owned by Exxon Mobil came into the terminal on Monday with the dead humpback on the bulbous protrusion of the ship's bow.
It was not immediately clear whether the tanker, operated by Exxon Mobil's SeaRiver Maritime shipping unit, struck the whale or how the animal died, the US Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
'We don't know the condition of the whale when it was struck, or where. What we do know is it was on the tanker bow in Valdez,' said Sheela McLean, a NOAA spokeswoman.
'We don't have any definitive answers about it,' she said, adding that she could not confirm reports that the whale was 50 feet long. Marine biologists say adult humpback whales can grow to be around 50 feet long.
SeaRiver Kodiak spokesman Ray Botto says the tanker may have had a role in the whale's death but it's also possible it was already dead.
The discovery was made late on Monday afternoon, when the Kodiak arrived at the Valdez marine terminal of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, officials said.
Humpback whales are a federally protected endangered species.The National Marine Fisheries Service is investigating. -- AP, REUTERS
