June 21, 2026 Seward Folly Staff

A deceased fin whale was discovered on the bulbous bow of the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship upon docking at Seward on Friday, June 19. It was only the second voyage to Seward’s new dock by theRoyal Caribbean’s Quantum-class ship. 

The crew covered the large whale with a tarp that morning, and later that evening, Storm Chasers towed the whale to its cove on Lowell Point. 

A crowd of onlookers gathered on the roadside throughout the weekend. NOAA Fisheries quickly coordinated a necropsy by the SeaLife Center.

According to initial NOAA reporting, the whale is 61 feet long, female, and pregnant. The public is being asked to stay clear of the beach as the examination is carried out.

Under the law, Alaska Natives are allowed to harvest the blubber and other body parts. In a prepared statement, Jennifer Angelo, Public Affairs Officer for NOAA, said, “ We remind the public that it is illegal for anyone to collect tissue, baleen, or any part of the whale, unless you are an Alaska Native collecting tissue or parts for subsistence or use in handicrafts.”

As of Sunday afternoon, several groups were cutting rectangular chunks of thick white blubber from the back of the whale, while the SeaLife Center staff were busy analysing the underside of the body. 

Typically, necropsies are used to determine the health of the animal or even the cause of death. Some whales picked up by ships were found to be dead from natural causes before the ship strike. Signs of blunt force, including broken bones, could confirm that the ship strike was the cause of death.  It is not known when the analysis might find such conclusions. 

The fin whale is the second-largest whale species on earth, second only to the blue whale. It is found throughout the world’s oceans. It gets its name from an easy-to-spot fin on its back, near its tail. Fin whales have long been noted for their extreme speed, cruising at 23 mph and  “sprinting” at 25 mph. Fin whales can dive up to depths of roughly 250 meters and stay underwater for nearly 15 minutes. Their average life span is 75 years. 

Fin whales were hunted by commercial whalers, which severely lowered their populations. Whalers did not target them at first because they were fast swimmers and lived in open ocean habitats. But, as whaling methods modernized with steam-powered ships and explosive harpoons, and whalers decimated other easy-to-catch species, whaling turned to fin whales. Whaling is no longer a threat to fin whales – commercial whaling ended in the 1970s and 1980s. Currently, the major threat to this species comes from vessel strikes. The fin whale is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Avoiding whale strikes by large ships has been a difficult task. One initiative cruise lines utilize to avoid whale strikes is training crews for sighting whales and identifying other types of marine mammals – supported further by policies to reduce the impact of operations on whales and other marine mammals by reducing vessel speed and maintaining safe distances from marine mammals, according to Cruise Lines International Association. The industry also uses an interactive, computer-based training program developed in collaboration with NOAA and the National Parks Service, CLIA said. The Southeast Alaska and Prince William Sound regions have been actively working on the issue for over a decade.

It is not known if the Ovation of the Seas was actively using any whale avoidance practices on its voyage to Seward.