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Mostly Cloudy Atlantic Beach finback whale removed from shore
Blunt force trauma contributed to cause of death
A dead finback whale found Wednesday morning at approximately 8 a.m. on the beach behind the Sands Beach Club and Catering Hall at 1395 Beach Street in Atlantic Beach was carted away by the Town of Hempstead to be incinerated on Thursday, Rob DiGiovanni, the director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation said.
"There was evidence of blunt force trauma to the whale which might have been a vessel, although we don't know what it encountered, it could have contributed to its death," DiGiovanni said.
Marine biologists from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation received a call about the whale around 8 a.m. on June 8.
Rescue Program Director Kim Durham said the whale is identified as a "sub adult" meaning it was not a fully grown finback. Typically a fully mature one could be as long as 70-feet. DiGiovanni said the whale was a male, weighed 30 tons and measured over 40 feet long.
"It was spotted on Sunday, seven miles off shore in Sandy Hook, New Jersey and we decided to let it be and see where it landed," said Durham, who said the whale was decomposed.
"It is very sad," said Melissa Fischler, a Hewlett resident and Sands club member. Fischler said she had seen other marine life such as sharks and dolphins wash up on the shore, but this is the first time she has seen a whale.
Denise Gallo of Howard Beach was invited by a girlfriend to spend the day at the beach. "There was a lot of excitement, what memory, but it's very said," said Gallo, who added that she wished her daughters could of seen the whale.
The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation took tissue samples from the whale and DiGiovanni said it will be a couple of months until the foundation will receive any information from the samples.
DiGiovanni said he thanks all those who helped report the whale sighting and who aided in its removal.
