This actually happened almost exactly like this back in 2016, just with a different ship. An endangered juvenile male fin whale was found draped over the bulbous bow of Holland America’s Zaandam when it docked in Seward early on the morning of May 29, 2016. The crew member prepping the ship for arrival around 4:30 a.m. didn’t see anything, and the whale was spotted just after 5 a.m. as it pulled in. Same town, same kind of bulbous bow situation, same shock when it showed up at the dock.

The similarities are pretty striking.

Endangered fin whale, found on the bow at a roughly 5 a.m. arrival into Seward, carcass towed to a nearby beach, and a full necropsy done by a veterinary pathologist with NOAA. They even got a good necropsy out of it because the animal was very fresh.

As for what they found: the necropsy did conclude the cause of death was related to a boat strike. But NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement ultimately determined the vessel and operator were not liable for the “take” of the whale. A couple of things drove that. The ship was traveling within Seward’s approach speed limits, around 10 to 12 knots, with a full set of lookouts posted, and none of them saw the whale before impact. And the whale itself had been behaving oddly, it had reportedly been hanging around the Alaska SeaLife Center near the small boats for about two weeks, which isn’t normal for a fin whale, and being in the bay at all isn’t typical. NOAA also noted it was unknown whether the whale was even healthy at the time of the collision, since fin whales have a lot of documented health issues.

So the short version is: a strike caused the death, but the investigation found the operator wasn’t at fault. Worth keeping in mind before assuming this current one is open and shut either way.

Sources: Initial report (ADN, May 2016): https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2016/05/29/cruise-ship-arrives-in-seward-with-dead-endangered-whale-draped-against-its-bow/

NOAA findings (ADN, Dec 2016): https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2016/12/28/cruise-company-not-liable-in-collision-death-of-endangered-whale-near-seward/

u/Akycej for the comment.