SOUTH PORTLAND (AP) – Poco, the young beluga whale whose frolicsome escapades charmed boaters and divers along the New England coast this summer, has been found dead along a beach in South Portland.

The Coast Guard said Poco’s carcass was recovered Monday at Mills Cove. The cause of death was unknown, and scientists in Woods Hole, Mass., will try to come up with answers.

The 8- to 9-foot light gray beluga was sighted off Gloucester, Mass., in March. Since then, the Coast Guard reported nearly 150 sightings as Poco ranged from the islands of Boston Harbor to mid-coast Maine.

He would engage in typical beluga behavior, trailing and rubbing against boats, divers, swimmers and fixed objects. His many cuts and scars were evidence of his encounters with boat propellers, which his fans had feared would do him in.

Stories circulated up and down the coast of Poco pushing around dinghies, squirting water into the faces of giggling children and rolling on his side to get belly-rubs from scuba divers.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits such interaction with whales and seals in the wild because it can make them more vulnerable to propellers, fishing gear and other human threats.

Whale experts and federal and state officials who had been tracking Poco all summer had hoped he would turn north toward his natural home in the Arctic waters off Canada. He was last sighted Oct. 30 in Saco Bay.