BRIGANTINE. N.J. The graffiti whale - a dead minke whale that washed up May 1 under a pier in Atlantic City and was promptly spray-painted with the letters of a fraternity - tested positive for morbillivirus, said Bob Schoelkopf, chief of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.
That is the same virus responsible for the deaths of 135 dolphins that washed up along the Jersey Shore last summer and as many as 1,300 animals up and down the coastline to Florida last year.
Schoelkopf said the virus last summer was primarily found in bottlenose dolphins but that there was some inter-species crossover, including two humpback whales, a pygmy sperm whale, and striped dolphins.
Schoelkopf said the Atlantic City whale also had been struck by a ship.
"It may have been already dead when it was struck," he said. "That's the one somebody ended up tagging with a fraternity insignia. It had a lot of things going against it."
The letters appeared to be "tau epsilon phi," those of a Voorhees-based fraternity that issued a statement calling the act "reprehensible."
Schoelkopf said the case had been referred to federal authorities, as the harassment of a federally protected animal - dead or alive - is a federal crime. A message left with the National Marine Fisheries Law Enforcement Agency, which is handling the case, was not immediately returned.
"We have suspected there could be interspecies exchange of the virus because of the proximity of so many animals," Schoelkopf said. "We're keeping our fingers crossed."
Schoelkopf said he was awaiting the results of tests of two dolphins found recently off the New Jersey coastline. And he said there was great concern over the impact of possible seismic testing being planned offshore by Rutgers University.
"Now we'll be testing all the animals for morbilli," he said. "If they go through with the testing, we'll have to be checking for seismic damage as well." - Amy S. Rosenberg
