A dead juvenile humpback whale has been found near Sitka.
The Daily Sitka Sentinel reports the 30-foot long whale was located Thursday near the western shore of Kruzof Island.
A fishing vessel notified Jeff Feldpausch, the resource protection director of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
The tribe and a local whale biologist collected samples from the dead animal, which were sent to a NOAA lab to determine the cause of death.
The biologist, Jan Straley, says it appears the whale had been dead for a while, and there were some post-mortem bite marks on it.