About 20 dead pilot whales were discovered Thursday near Kice Island in southwest Florida, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
They were part of a pod of 23 whales first seen swimming around Gordon Pass in Naples in Collier County on Sunday, NOAA Fisheries Southeast marine mammal stranding coordinator Blair Mase said.
Biologists marked the whales, which were spotted again off Marco Pass near Marco Island on Monday. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission boat stayed with the group for much of Monday, when they were two miles off-shore, before officials stopped monitoring them.
But early Thursday afternoon, officials received a report from a boater who saw the whales on Kice Island, Mase said.
Mase said the whales came in on the high seas and were beached on Kice Island. It is on the south side of Caxambas Pass, which divides Marco Island and Kice Island, Amendola said. They were discovered 16 miles south of where they were originally spotted on Sunday.
A FWC field biologist went out and confirmed that the whales were all dead, and had been there for about 24 hours, Mase said. The biologist was accompanied by FWC law enforcement.
NOAA is still waiting for an exact count of the number of dead whales, which is about 20, agency spokeswoman Kim Amendola said.
Earlier this week, four pilot whales died and four more were euthanized around Lover’s Key near Fort Myers in Lee County.
Mase said the necropsies on those eight whales were completed Wednesday. Some of the whales looked emaciated, and some appeared to be in decent condition, she said.
"They did all have empty stomachs, which is something that we were suspecting," she said.
Five of the whales were males and three were females, including one that was pregnant, Amendola said.
In December, 51 pilot whales were found stranded in Everglades National Park, and 22 of them died. No cause of deaths has been determined yet for those whales, Mase said Thursday.
Photo Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservattion Commission