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© Ben TwingleyWorkers take the dead melon-headed whale off the Perdido Key beach Tuesday afternoon.
A melon-headed whale that died Tuesday on Perdido Key was sick, and NOAA scientists will try to determine if it died from the same illness being blamed on a mass die-off of dolphins.

The small melon-headed whale that died Tuesday after stranding on Gulf Islands National Seashore's Perdido Key beach showed clear signs of suffering from some type of illness, initial findings from a necropsy revealed.

Exactly what made it sick won't be known for weeks or months, after pathologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service analyze tissue, blood samples and other data collected by Steve Shippee, stranding coordinator for Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge in Fort Walton Beach.

"Our dolphin, which we continue to believe is a melon-headed whale (Peponocephala electra), most likely had a chronic illness that should be detectable by pathology and lab analysis," he said. "On gross necropsy exam, we are able to describe lesions and injuries that an animal sustained, but the findings of the tissue analysis will take a while to be returned. Sadly, the animal was in the prime of life as a mature breeding age member of his species."

No doubt NOAA will look for a link to this whale's death and the death of 1,239 dolphins and marine mammals that have died along the coast and in the Gulf of Mexico from the Apalachicola Bay area to the Texas-Louisiana border during the largest and longest mass die-off that began in February 2010.

Shippee also determined the whale is a mature male and suffered from a number of bites from sharks that naturally prey on sick and weakened fish and marine mammals.

Shippee and his team worked late into Tuesday night on the animal version of the autopsy.

Identifying the dead marine mammal is difficult because melon-headed whales are closely related to the pygmy killer whales and pilot whales, which are all collectively called "blackfish."

This species of whale are found primarily in deep waters in Hawaii, Northern Gulf of Mexico and Western Atlantic, along with other tropical areas of the world, according to NOAA fisheries.

The Gulf's population is estimated at 3,450. This species is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Melon-headed whales also are often found in groups of hundreds or more than 1,000 animals, according to the NOAA Fisheries.

With that in mind, seashore deputy superintendent Steve McCoy said park rangers are closely watching out for other strandings.

Based on the whale's declining condition, Shippee thnks it likely was alone.

"Usually, we see strandings of these offshore species as single individuals that were injured or ill," Shippee said. "It happens once or twice a year on average. I'm not aware if there have been any other strandings of this species along the Gulf Coast at this time, but it does occasionally happen that pelagic dolphins might show up across a long stretch (like off Apalachicola, Pensacola and Biloxi) within a few days of each other."

Generally speaking, he said, when this has happened it was in association with weather events like the 2007 mass stranding of seven pilot whales on Santa Rosa Island during stormy weather and red-flag surf conditions.

"That said, I have no reason to think that there are any other melon-heads coming this way - knock on wood - because if they were together in a group they would all have likely showed up on the beach at the same time," he said.

The 9-foot, roughly 400 pound whale was discovered by park rangers on morning patrols for shorebird and sea turtle nests. It was surrounded by sharks and struggling in the shallows near Fort McRee at the Pensacola Pass around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

They were unable to help the whale because of the large number of sharks. It died struggling in the surf around 9 a.m. before Shippee and his volunteers with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network could arrive.

The whale is the 22nd stranding in the Panhandle since the beginning of the year.