Baby humpback whale washes ashore on Jones Beach

A baby humpback whale washed up dead on Jones Beach, L.I., Thursday morning.

Officials estimated the 30-foot, 20-ton creature was about two years old and had been dead two weeks.

The cause of death was unclear. There were no signs of trauma, such as propeller marks. But experts wondered aloud: Could the whale be part of the BP Gulf Coast oil spill body count?

"It's tough to see," said Paul Brook, with the Nature Center on Jones Beach. "It looks like it got hit by a ship. It's so young to die naturally. ... It could be related with the oil spill, if it passed through there. It's a shame."

State park staff found the whale between 7 and 8 a.m. on the east end of the beach near Parking Field Six, said George Gorman, deputy regional director for New York State Parks.

The carcass will be removed for an autopsy, according to Robert DiGiovanni, a biologist with the New York State Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue program.

Read more: www.nydailynews.com... Ym
www.yahoo.news.com

As i was reading this article i did a bit of research on the whales and it seems they spend the winters in the tropical waters is it possible we will see more whales and etc washing up???or if this whales death is found to be caused by the gulf spill how far has the spill reached????

I saw this on the news tonight, shame.

If it has got anything to do with the oil spill, i'm sure BP has enough spare cash to buy off the autopsy report.

Lets hope this is the only large creature we see washing up on those shores.

CX.

reply to post by alchemist2012


I will post what I posted in the Breaking News article on the same subject, so I don't have to retype it all.

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Originally posted by broahes
reply to post by GeminiSky

 

A dead whale measuring nearly 30 feet long was discovered washed up on a popular Long Island beach early Thursday, and authorities said it would take some time to figure out the mammal's cause of death.

New York State Parks Police officers found the male humpback whale at the east end of Jones Beach, in Wantagh. Experts said it was 2 to 5 years old and had probably been dead about a week.

Biologists from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation were at the beach Thursday afternoon but did not have equipment available to perform a necropsy to determine what caused the animal's death. Instead, the whale was picked up and moved from the shoreline onto the sand. Tests were scheduled for Friday.

“There's no blood; there are no slashes from a propeller or something that we can see,” said parks spokesman George Gorman.

Source

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it could be pollution related, but not from the oil spill.

I guess time will tell.

Edit to add:

There was a thread a few days ago that had to do with a crew that was sick after pulling up some barrels of unknown chemicals off the coast of New York. I wonder if that could have any relation to this:

"A fishing boat dredging for clams off New York's Long Island pulled up 10 canisters, including one that broke open and released an unidentified chemical that caused two crew members to blister and struggle to breathe, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday"

"After learning of the incident, the Coast Guard issued a "captain of the port order," a rare command instructing the boat to return to port."

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Off the coast of Long Island too..

[edit on 10-6-2010 by broahes]

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In response to someone asking how frequently this occurs:

Originally posted by broahes
reply to post by slidingdoor

 

This article may partly answer your question:

In April, a 9.1m-long baby whale weighing approximately 13 tonnes became stranded on Main Beach in East Hampton, Long Island, and later died.

Beached whales are found on the east end of Long Island every year or two. Beached dolphins are more common, and have a "good success rate" because they can be taken to a rehabilitation tank.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the humpback whale can reach up to 18m in length. There are only an estimated 550 humpback whales in the waters off of the northeast coast of the US. They spend northern Summer months in the waters, consuming up to 1360kg of food per day.

Source

Seems like it isn't that out of the ordinary, but I'm still interested in hearing the results of what ended up being the cause of death.. as this whale wasn't beached, it appears to have died in the water a week prior.

I'm curious to see if it could be linked back to the story I mentioned in my first post.

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That thread didn't go too far, but here it is regardless:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I will post any further info I find here though.