Endangered fin whale found dead on bow of cruise ship entering Alaska port

• News & Highlights

A cruise ship arrived at an Alaska port carrying a dead, endangered whale on its bow. The Zaandam, a Holland America Line cruise ship, was preparing to dock in Seward just after 5am Sunday when the juvenile fin whale was spotted on top of the ship's bulbous bow, the part of the bow under the water line.

Company spokeswoman Sally Andrews said in an email to the Associated Press that the whale wasn't there a half-hour earlier.

She says an officer had been preparing the ship for arrival just after 4.30 a.m. and didn't see a whale. National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman Julie Speegle says the whale was towed to a beach and a necropsy is underway.

Veterinarian pathologists will determine whether or not the whale was already dead when it became lodged to the ship. In a statement Sunday, Andrews wrote the cruise company is 'saddened by this event', the Alaska Dispatch News reported. 'Our ships have clear guidelines on how to operate if whales are sighted nearby, which include altering course and reducing speed as required,' Andrews wrote. 'In this case we were not aware of any whales in the area,' she wrote.

The Dutch-registered Zaandam weighs over 61,000 tons and is longer than two football fields, according to Holland America Line.

Fin whales - the second-largest species of whale - can weigh up to 80 tons and grow to be 85 feet long. They can live to be 90 years old. Though endangered, the fin whale is the whale species most often struck by ships, studies show.