During July 13--15, residents of a western Alaska village on the Bering Sea shore shared a meal consisting of muktuk [skin and a pink blubber layer] harvested from a beached adult beluga whale found near their village. The villagers estimated that the whale had been dead for at least several weeks. They cut the whale fluke (tail) into pieces and stored them in zipper-sealed plastic bags in a refrigerator until they were eaten 1 or 2 days later. On July 17, after a physician from western Alaska reported three suspected cases of botulism among patients who had eaten the muktuk, the Alaska Section of Epidemiology began an investigation. . . .
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