Wanted: 29 Stolen Whale Teeth

The Museum of Comparative Zoology is looking for several missing teeth.

The ivories belong to a dead whale which washed ashore on a north Massachusetts beach near Essex, Mass., Tuesday night.

The National Marine Fisheries promised the whale's remains to Harvard while the animal was still floating down the New England coast.

But before the University could retrieve the carcass, a couple from Essex allegedly cut out the whale's jaw with a chain saw and stole 29 teeth.

The couple reportedly removed the teeth and discarded the remainder of the jaw in a pile of manure about 10 miles up Route 133 in Gloucester.

After the couple found out that anonymous sources had informed police of their actions, they turned the teeth over to authorities.

"As we were following up those anonymous leads, word got back to these people that we knew about them," said state environmental police Capt. James Hanlon. "They contacted us. We went to their residence Thursday night and they turned the teeth over to us."

National Marine Fisheries now has possession of the teeth, according to a spokesperson at the Essex Police Department.

Meanwhile, researchers at the museum are awaiting the arrival of the teeth to add to the other remains of the whale.

Judy M. Chupasko, a curatorial assistant in the museum's mammal department, said yesterday that Harvard already has the specimen's skull, jaw, flipper and vertebrae.

Chupasko said that, once the teeth are received, they can be added to the rest of the specimen. Research will be delayed, but not jeopardized.

Still, she doesn't feel that the couple who stole the teeth should be excused.

"They should be punished in some way," Chupasko said.

The couple is yet to be charged, and police are withholding their names. If convicted, they could face fines of up to $50,000 and a year in jail for violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The carcass of the young, 40-foot male sperm whale was spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard near Isle of Shoals, N.H., about two and a half weeks ago, according to Petty Officer Mike J. Daponte of the U.S. Coast Guard

Office in Portland, Maine.

The Coast Guard station in Newburyport, Mass, tried to sink and retrieve the carcass last Monday, said Chris J. Falcone, a petty officer there. But the retrieval effort was unsuccessful.

Falcone said his office "definitely assumed" that this carcass was the one seen off the coast of New Hampshire.

On Tuesday, the whale was again spotted off-shore, and its jaw was still intact. The carcass apparently drifted into Essex Bay late Tuesday night. The couple cut the jaw out before dawn on Wednesday.

The whale was found near Crane Beach on land owned by the Trustees of Reservation, a non-profit organization working to preserve this shoreline. That group assisted in transporting officials to the site.

Chupasko said the retrieval of the specimen began Thursday as a joint effort by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the New England Aquarium.

The sperm whale, whose species is the largest of the toothed whales, is an important addition for the Museum of Comparative Zoology. The museum now has the remains of three sperm whales.

Chupasko said sperm whales are "significant in history." She said several barrels of oil can be recovered from the large spermaceti organ in their heads.

Before the days of electricity, when oil-burning lamps were in use, the oil of the sperm whale was highly prized.

Now, so are the teeth

Office in Portland, Maine.

The Coast Guard station in Newburyport, Mass, tried to sink and retrieve the carcass last Monday, said Chris J. Falcone, a petty officer there. But the retrieval effort was unsuccessful.

Falcone said his office "definitely assumed" that this carcass was the one seen off the coast of New Hampshire.

On Tuesday, the whale was again spotted off-shore, and its jaw was still intact. The carcass apparently drifted into Essex Bay late Tuesday night. The couple cut the jaw out before dawn on Wednesday.

The whale was found near Crane Beach on land owned by the Trustees of Reservation, a non-profit organization working to preserve this shoreline. That group assisted in transporting officials to the site.

Chupasko said the retrieval of the specimen began Thursday as a joint effort by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the New England Aquarium.

The sperm whale, whose species is the largest of the toothed whales, is an important addition for the Museum of Comparative Zoology. The museum now has the remains of three sperm whales.

Chupasko said sperm whales are "significant in history." She said several barrels of oil can be recovered from the large spermaceti organ in their heads.

Before the days of electricity, when oil-burning lamps were in use, the oil of the sperm whale was highly prized.

Now, so are the teeth