CAPE LOOKOUT NATIONAL SEASHORE – A 16-foot long minke whale died this weekend after washing up on the sand on Cape Lookout.

Officials said the 1-year-old female was thin and ill when she became stranded.

On Facebook, Marine mammal DVM Dr. Craig Harms described the whale’s condition: “She also had large abscesses throughout her lungs, infection around her heart, and cataracts.”

The whale’s skull and baleen, which is used to strain plankton from seawater when feeding, will be studied and displayed for public education at the future Bonehenge Whale Center in Beaufort.