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Baby Whale Still Dying On Long Island
By
Jen Carlson
Published Apr 7, 2010
Modified Apr 7, 2010
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Apr 7, 2010
Modified Apr 7, 2010
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[UPDATE BELOW] The baby hump back whale that has been beached in East Hampton since yesterday morning is still there, and Chuck Bowman of the Riverhead Foundation tells the NY Post that his crew will stay with it until it dies, at which time they'll conduct a necropsy (the local police chief told WPIX that it did not appear physically injured).
The baby whale is stranded without its mother, who it would need to be nursed back to health. Bowman explains, "They are dependent on their mother. You know, they're still drinking milk, they don't eat food.... even if we could provide that caloric intake they grow to be 40 to 50-feet long. There is no place in the world that's going to have the ability to keep it." There was a group of whales spotted in the waters nearby, but there's no way to reunite the two even if it the baby's mother was amongst them.
Last year a hump back whale washed up in New Jersey and others were spotted in the Hudson and off Coney Island. Bowman says that recently there have been more whale sightings off the coast of Montauk... monsters beware!
UPDATE: Newsday (subscription only) reports that while Bowman would prefer the whale die naturally, it may be euthanized. However, he says that the process would be complicated and would take a large amount of solution. There are also safety concerns—he notes, "We need a plan so that we don't put any of our staff in danger, because if they walk up to the whale and put a needle in him, we don't know if the whale would have a spasm, thrash around and possibly break someone's neck."
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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