50 ton Dead Whale Washes Up in Hampton Bays, New York

Coast Guard had received reports of a dead whale floating out in the ocean earlier in the day.

By Erica Jackson and Taylor K. Vecsey

August 10, 2012

A dead whale washed up in Hampton Bays on Friday, after it was seen floating out in the Atlantic Ocean earlier in the day.

Kim Durham, the rescue program coordinator at the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research & Preservation, said the whale’s body landed just east of Tiana Beach between 4:30 and 5 p.m.

A dead whale washed up on Tiana Beach in Hampton Bays on Aug. 10. Credit Vincent Remini

The Coast Guard received calls on Friday afternoon that a whale was floating in the ocean, but officials weren’t exactly sure if the carcass was headed east or west. The southwind pushed the whale toward Hampton Bays.

The whale was fairly decomposed, Durham said. While she hasn’t examined it yet, she believes it is either a sei whale, which is an endangered species, or finback whale, which is a threatened species. Both are common in New York waters, she said.

It was estimated to be about 50 feet long and weigh 50 tons, Durham said.

The Riverhead Foundation will work with the county on Saturday in deciding what to do with the carcass. The biologists will have to be escorted to the area due to piping plovers nesting in the area.

Just this spring, an adult pygmy sperm whale was discovered dead on the shore in West Hampton Dunes.

In July 2011, an injured sperm whale calf washed up on the rocky shore in Montauk. It died several hours later. At one-year-and-a-half old calf, it weighed 2.5 tons and measured 18 feet long, making the task of removing it extremely difficult. An excavator hoisted the whale off the rocky shore and placing it in a large Dumpster, which was then carted away so that a necropsy could be conducted before it was buried.

In March 2010, a young humpback whale became stranded on an East Hampton beach. Despite attempts to save the animal, it was eventually euthanized.

southampton.patch.com

Fair Use: Educational