STOCKTON SPRINGS – A cheer went up from the small group of onlookers standing on the shore of a cove as the dusk fell Wednesday.

A small pilot whale, beached in the mud flats east of Cape Jellison since the afternoon, had finally been nudged free by scientists from Allied Whale, the marine mammal study group of the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. With an assist from the incoming tide, the whale began swimming south toward the larger bay.

But less than a minute after the cheer, the whale made a hard right turn and began swimming in a tight circle, over and over again. Some of the observers groaned. Sean Todd, a professor at COA and director of Allied Whale, waved his arms in frustration to see the animal return to the pattern it has shown since it was first spotted in the area last week.

The scientists speculate that the pilot whale, which is not yet full grown, is suffering some neurological problem, possibly the attack of some kind of brain worm.

Since residents of this town at the mouth of the Penobscot River first spotted the whale, it has been seen swimming in clockwise circles, even when in the deeper waters off Fort Point State Park, or it has beached itself on the sandbars and mud flats of the coves along the east side of Cape Jellison.

On Tuesday, Bob Bowman of the Center for Coastal Studies, Todd and some of his students used an inflatable boat to get close to the whale to assess its condition.

“It was not in good health,” said Judy Allen, associate director of Allied Whale.

Lesions were spotted on its skin, and some abrasions were noted on its snout, she said.

The whale is about 12-feet-long, and of unknown sex. Adult pilot whales usually run about 20-feet-long, Allen said.

The species is known to “strand” – swim onto beaches – in groups. Allen said scientists speculate that the behavior is the result of some confusion over direction. The whales are believed to use magnetic fields for their sense of direction.

Pilot whales are social animals, Allen said, and often travel together. A pilot whale might strand alone if it has been sick for some time, she said.

The animals are not common in Maine waters, but neither are they considered rare, she said.

Before returning to Stockton Springs Wednesday night, Todd discussed euthanizing the whale with representatives of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The scientists prefer not to kill the animal, Allen said, but the young pilot whale was in obvious distress.

Because the needle used to euthanize the animal contains a lethal chemical and must be administered in a vein in the tail, the scientists also were reluctant to try it, fearing the thrashing tail could drive the needle into one of the men.

Irene Hagemann praised Allied Whale for their response to her phone calls over the last several days, as the whale has returned to the cove below her house.

On Tuesday, she was walking her dogs along the shore.

“I heard a rasping sound as I came off the beach,” she said. After tying the dogs, she investigated what appeared to be a tree trunk on the mud flats. The trunk turned out to be the whale.

Hagemann splashed water on the whale’s back, which had grown dry in the sun. With the tide, the whale was able to swim off, she said. Later in the day, someone else saw it swimming in circles near the park.

Then Wednesday morning, there were reports of it having beached itself at Grant’s Cove near the park.

“I try not to get emotional,” Hagemann said, watching the whale swimming strongly, if inexplicably, in circles. Her friends and neighbors also expressed their sadness at seeing the creature in obvious distress.

At about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Allen said the only plan was to watch the whale and hope for the best.