Herman Melville didn’t mince words when it came to the sperm whale. With emphasis, he explained “I tell you, the sperm whale will stand no nonsense.” And it didn’t — since we know it as the creature that sank the whaleship Essex in the real-life tragedy that was the inspiration for Moby Dick.
In waters about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, a whale not seen in the region for more than two centuries was spotted from the skies last week by scientists with the New England Aquarium.
The rope embedded in the tail of a dead young right whale that washed up on the Vineyard last month is consistent with buoy lines used by trap fishermen in Maine.
Tribal leadership maintains it has aboriginal rights to any dead whales that beach along the shores of Noepe — the Wampanoag name for Martha’s Vineyard. Retaining that right has remained a priority for members, who have traditionally made use of whale meat, fat, bones and baleen.
The 3-year-old female whale was seen entangled in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in August 2022, and attempts to free it off Cape Cod last year were unsuccessful, according to the New England Aquarium.
The journey to Aquinnah was two-fold: a tow by sea to the Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard in Vineyard Haven, and then a land transport up-Island.