A dead whale washed up along an area beach over Memorial Day weekend.
The 10-foot long pygmy sperm whale washed up along the beach at Delaware Seashore State Park Sunday.
The Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute was called in to figure out why the 800-pound mammal died. A necropsy was performed.
"He appeared to be a fairly robust animal with what looked like what might have been a previous entanglement around his tail," Suzanne Thurman, executive director of the MERR Institute, told Delaware Online. "He did have a fairly heavy parasite load in his GI tract, which is indicative of poor health."
In recent months other whales have washed up in the region including one that was tagged with graffiti after washing up in Atlantic City and following a report that more whales are being struck by ships along the East Coast.
