Dead whale washes ashore in East Providence
WPRI|Raymond Baccari and Shaun Towne|May 11, 2025
A dead whale was found Sunday near Bold Point Park in East Providence. A spokesperson for the R.I. Department of Environmental Management (DEM) said they received a report about the whale around 8 a.m.
A dead whale was found Sunday near Bold Point Park in East Providence. A spokesperson for the R.I. Department of Environmental Management (DEM) said they received a report about the whale around 8 a.m.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A dead whale was found Sunday near Bold Point Park in East Providence.
A spokesperson for the R.I. Department of Environmental Management (DEM) said they received a report about the whale around 8 a.m.
The DEM reached out to Mystic Aquarium about the whale.
Rachael Levine, the aquarium’s marketing project manager, told 12 News the minke whale has been dead about four months and first washed ashore in mid-January.
“Initially the whale washed up next to a pier offshore and we were unable to access it easily,” Levine said. “We were able to work with RI DEM to collect a skin and blubber sample.”
There were additional sightings of the carcass in the weeks that followed, according to Levine. She said the whale is …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A dead whale was found Sunday near Bold Point Park in East Providence.
A spokesperson for the R.I. Department of Environmental Management (DEM) said they received a report about the whale around 8 a.m.
The DEM reached out to Mystic Aquarium about the whale.
Rachael Levine, the aquarium’s marketing project manager, told 12 News the minke whale has been dead about four months and first washed ashore in mid-January.
“Initially the whale washed up next to a pier offshore and we were unable to access it easily,” Levine said. “We were able to work with RI DEM to collect a skin and blubber sample.”
There were additional sightings of the carcass in the weeks that followed, according to Levine. She said the whale is severely decomposed and not in an area where it’s feasible to conduct a necropsy.
“Due to the difficult area it washed up, we are not able to remove the carcass or tow it to another location and it will be left on site to decompose naturally,” Levine added.
While minke whales are commonly seen in our area, an unusual mortality event (UME) has been declared for the species due an increase in deaths over the past eight years. Levine said Mystic has responded to 14 dead minke whales in Rhode Island since 2017, adding that several of the whales “have shown evidence of human interactions (vessel strikes and entanglements) and infectious disease.”