A humpback calf carcass was found on the north shores of NSW in August 2012. Several marine mammal students in my research group and I decided to take a break from lab work and go on a road trip to see it before it was buried. Unfortunately when we got there, the animal had already been dissected into large pieces, and carried a foul smell.

The animal’s layer of blubber didn’t look as thick as it should have, and we suspect that the animal may have been starving.