Humpback whale washed up dead on New York beach, 10th in recent months

Another whale was washed up dead overnight, making Monday’s tragic discovery the 10th loss of large aquatic mammals in the past two months.

Officials were absent from Long Island after a male humpback whale was spotted on Lido beach before 7 a.m. By the time they found him, he was dead.

The crowds that had gathered during the day to catch the whale prompted the Hempstead Town crews to erect a temporary fence around the whale. It was so big that it took an excavator to move it away from the shore.

The researchers estimate that the whale is 40 feet long and about 5 years old.

The humpback whale has become the 10th large whale washed up on Atlantic beaches, including Long Island and New Jersey, in the past two months.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported 178 humpback whale strandings in 13 Atlantic states since 2016. The agency has called the deaths “an unusual case of mortality” and says they are still under investigation.

NOAA reports that about half of the dead whales found were shot down by ships. Whether the whale found on the Lido beach was the victim of a collision with a ship or died for some other reason, the experts of the Atlantic Society of Maritime Talk will determine the answer.