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NY Is #1 In Dead Whales
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Apr 28, 2017
Modified Apr 28, 2017
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Apr 28, 2017
Modified Apr 28, 2017
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There's a lot for which New York ranks #1 nationwide. There's pizza, for instance, public transit, finding homes for abandoned pets, and of course, political corruption. Unfortunately, our fair town's found itself at the top of a not-so-great list—according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), we had the most fatal humpback whale strandings last year.
NOAA says there were four mysterious humpback whale deaths off the coast of Long Island last year. One such death was that of a baby humpback whale found trapped in a sandbar at Moriches Bay in November; NOAA had to euthanize the whale, and researchers are still trying to figure out how the whale got stuck. NOAA says there's been an overall increase in whale deaths in the area, including in New Jersey, with 41 total whale strandings along the coast from Maine to North Carolina.
Some of these deaths are due to ship and boat strikes. A whale found dead in the NY Harbor near Jersey City last year, for instance, was likely struck by a boat. Still, NOAA is classifying the uptick as an Unusual Mortality Event, and the phenomenon hasn't quite ended—earlier this month, a dead humpback whale was found on Rockaway Beach, and just this week a minke whale was euthanized after it beached itself in the Bronx.
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Rebecca Fishbein
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