Carcass floated into Edgartown Great Pond
© Paul BagnallCarcass floated into Edgartown Great Pond
The carcass of a decomposing right whale was recovered in Great Pond Tuesday and National Marine Fisheries Service officials are expected to perform a necropsy on the animal on Wednesday, said Edgartown Shellfish Constable Paul Bagnall.

Residents had seen what was left of the roughly 25-foot whale floating by over the past few days; it likely came into the pond through a freshly made cut in the beach, Bagnall said.

"It's really decomposing," he said. "It's a tail and about two-thirds of a body."

One of the pectoral fins was down to the skeleton, and there is nothing left of the head, he said.

"But because it is a right whale, they are looking to come over and take a look at it," he said.

North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered and there are only about 500 left in the world. The recent deaths of 10 right whales off Canada have alarmed experts. Another right whale died in Cape Cod Bay in April.

The whale on the Vineyard appears to have been dead for a while, as it doesn't have the stench of a freshly dead whale, Bagnall said.

The carcass has been tied to the shore and is lying in the shallows off Martha's Vineyard Land Bank land. It will likely be buried in the beach after the necropsy, Bagnall said.