This past September a badly decomposing body of a 25-foot juvenile humpback whale washed onto Revere Beach. The carcass was in such decaying shape that it could not be towed or lifted and officials were also concerned about a truck getting stuck in the sand. So, it was buried on Revere Beach, but that was not the end of the story.
At last Wednesday’s Conservation Commission, it was made clear to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) that no animals will ever be buried on Revere Beach again.
“I feel strongly that I can’t go along with burying anything on the beach,†said Conservation Commission member Anne Raponi.
ConCom Interim Chair Nick Moulaison had signed-off with permission to bury the whale.
“I won’t do that again,†he said.
There will no longer be any signs offs from the Conservation Chair, the Mayor or the State Representative.
State Rep. RoseLee Vincent is against burying animals on the beach.
“This was a rare situation and we weren’t prepared,†Vincent said in a letter to the commission.
“It caught the agency by surprise,†said Jorge Ayub, a marine biologist for the DCR. “We’re not experts in the disposing of whales,†he said.
“The state of decomposition made it difficult,†Moulaison
This particular whale had washed up in Cohasset and the DCR used the method they know of towing the carcass to sea and puncturing a whole in it so it sinks.
