Rare whale washes up in Long Beach

Biologists from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation are conducting tests to determine what medical ailments caused a rare whale to wash up and become stranded on the shores of Long Beach last week.

A female northern bottlenose whale — the first of its kind to be reported in New York — washed up on the shores of the Laurelton Boulevard beach the night of Oct. 20 and became stranded. Members of the Riverhead Foundation responded to a call from the public about the whale at around 11 p.m. but despite the best efforts of the biologists as well as members of the Long Beach Police Department and concerned residents, they were unable to save the whale.

The animal was euthanized after it was determined to be compromised and suffering, and samples were collected so that researchers from the foundation could conduct a necropsy and determine what caused it to become stranded in the first place. Rachel Bosworth, a spokesman for the foundation, said that the whale showed no signs of a ship-strike and that it was most likely suffering from some other internal complication.

Residents that discovered the whale

attempted to push it back into the water, but Bosworth said that can be dangerous for both the animal and their own safety.

“While they did mean well, it’s actually against federal law to push animals or get within 150 feet of all marine animals because they’re federally protected,” Bosworth said. “It actually causes more stress to the animals, but they did have its best interest in mind.”

The whale was about 14-feet long, though northern bottlenose can grow as big as 32-feet and weigh 17,000 pounds.

Scientists from the foundation returned to the beach the next morning, Oct. 21, and moved the whale to the Nevada Boulevard beach to begin collecting samples and conducting tests. The necropsy is expected to determine the cause of the creature’s stranding, which could be from a number of scenarios including illness or ingestion of marine debris, Bosworth said.

The samples were sent back to the foundation’s labs where they will undergo a full battery of tests that will examine everything from the whale’s bone structure to internal organs.

Bosworth said that these tests are extensive, and complete results will not be available for weeks.