Dead whale found on bow of cruise ship entering Alaska port

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A veterinary pathologist worked Monday to determine what killed a juvenile fin whale discovered on the bow of a cruise ship entering an Alaska port.

The cause of death was not immediately apparent for the endangered whale spotted just after 5 a.m. Sunday on the bulbous bow of the Zaandam, a Holland America Line cruise ship, as it prepared to dock in Seward.

The carcass was towed to a beach near Seward, a spokeswoman for the fisheries section of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Julie Speegle, said Monday.

The veterinary pathologist, Kathy Burek, began a necropsy Sunday night and planned to continue Monday, with armed NOAA Fisheries law enforcement officers standing guard against bears, Speegle said.