The "sickly" and "emaciated" 60-foot finback whale beached on the shoreline at Breezy Point in Queens, New York, yesterday, is now dead. The whale was originally given a grim prognosis, as biologists noticed that at 60 tons, the whale was extremely underweight. Mendy Garron, a marine-mammal rescue coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service, told the New York Times, "When large whales strand, it’s very difficult,” adding, "The minute they get on the beach they’re being compromised because their internal organs are being crushed by their weight.”
Now biologists are working on a necropsy plan and will determine how to dispose of the whale's large body; the finback whale is the second-longest animal on Earth, behind the blue whale.
Video of the beached whale via the New York Post, below:
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