SEKIU — A local marine mammal biologist performed the necropsy on a Dall’s porpoise that a Port Angeles couple found, headless, on a beach Tuesday.
Nathan Pamplin, a biologist for the Makah tribe, said the animal died after it became stranded on the beach Sunday night.
On Monday, Pamplin took tissue samples from the porpoise, removed its skull to take a tooth and determine the age of the animal, and cut open its side to reach its stomach and internal organs.
Such a forensic exam is common on freshly deceased marine mammals.
Pamplin said he could not determine the animal’s immediate cause of death.
When he was finished, Pamplin pushed the porpoise out to sea as far as he could while wearing waders to return it to the ocean’s food web.
It apparently washed back onto the beach between Sekiu and Neah Bay, where Tina and Dan Bateham of Port Angeles found it while walking.