Thursday, October 1, 2026
A 46-foot long dead finback whale found Wednesday morning after it washed ashore in Atlantic Beach was transported through Long Beach today, drawing the attention of curious beachgoers and bystanders as it lay in the back of a truck escorted by police vehicles.
“They were transporting it across the beach — it was very unusual, some people knew what it was, some didn’t’,” said Long Beach Lifeguards Supervisor Tom Daly. “It looked like it was badly decomposed and they had it on the back of a truck.”
The whale was discovered on the beach behind the Sands Beach Club and Catering Hall at 1395 Beach Street, when marine biologists from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation said they received a call about the whale around 8 a.m. on June 8.
Daly said that the whale was being taken to a facility in the Town of Hempstead where it would be incinerated, after it was loaded onto a truck by a backhoe.
Daly said he believes that the warm water temperatures have drawn more marine life off the coast, with recent sightings of seals, dolphins and whales. On Thursday, Daly said the water temperature was climbing to 68 degrees.
“There was another whale that was here during the week, a different whale, it breached twice off of National Boulevard,” he said. “My guess is the warmer waters, that’s the difference.”
Nancy Greco, a spokeswoman for the Town of Hempstead, said that the Riverhead Foundation is leading the effort to examine the 30-ton whale and dispose of its remains. The organization, after completing a necropsy on Thursday, received permission from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to transport the whale to Covanta, a waste to energy facility in Garden City, Greco said.
“I think they may save some organs for research,” Greco said, adding that the early reports suggest that a ship struck the whale offshore. “The only involvement we’ve had has been assisting with the transportation.”
