A whale carcass spotted floating in the water off Harpswell on Monday was a humpback, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined.

It is the second humpback whale found dead in Maine waters this month.

The cause of the whale’s death is and the carcass is too decomposed to conduct a full necropsy.

Local officials plan to remove the carcass from the water Wednesday.

Harpswell Marine Resources and Harbor Management posted on Facebook Monday that the whale was seen floating in Wills Gut next to the Cribstone Bridge, which connects Orr’s Island to Bailey Island.

NOAA officials believe the same whale carcass was observed drifting about 15 miles off Midcoast Maine on June 11.

Humpbacks are not considered threatened or endangered. But NOAA is investigating an unusually large number of humpback whale deaths along the Atlantic coast since 2016. The administration declared an unusual mortality event for the species in 2017.

Scientists are unlikely to perform a full examination on the animal to determine the cause of its death because of the level of decomposition, said Andrea Gomez, NOAA communications specialist and public affairs officer.

“Once a disposal plan is decided upon, then our teams will determine if a limited necropsy is possible,” Gomez said.

Harpswell Select Board Chair Kevin Johnson said officials are unlikely to investigate the death further because the whale is “falling apart.”

“It’s been dead a long time,” Johnson said.

Harpswell town officials plan to have the whale removed from the water Wednesday, Johnson said. It will then be transported to Benson Farm in Gorham, a composting business that produces fertilizer from seafood waste and other dead marine animals.

There have been 10 dead humpback whales found in Maine coastal and offshore waters since 2016. This is the second dead humpback found in Maine this year so far.

A humpback known as “Chunk” was discovered dead tangled in fishing gear earlier this month. NOAA reported the whale likely drowned because of the entanglement, which prevented it from surfacing to breathe.

NOAA has conducted necropsies on about half of the humpback whales found dead from Maine to Florida since 2016. Of the whales examined, about 40% had evidence of human interaction,  such as a ship strike or entanglement in fishing gear.

It was not clear whether or not fishing gear or boats were involved in the most recent humpback death.

Marine Mammals of Maine and the Maine Department of Marine Resources were also involved in the investigation into the whale’s death.

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