UPDATE: What killed whale that washed up on a Jersey Shore beach?
TOMS RIVER -- A dead whale has washed ashore in the Chadwick Beach section of Toms River.
The massive whale appears to be resting on its side near the North Surf Road beach and officials say it was found on the beach Tuesday.
The type of whale was unclear, but it is roughly 30 feet long. A message left for the Marine Mammal Stranding Center was not immediately returned.
Township resident Kerry Frew said he watched the whale come ashore about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
"It took about a half an hour for it to get up here, because it was clearly already dead and moving really slow," Frew said. "You could tell right away that it was a whale. And it looked like it had been bit by a shark, because it looks like there are shark bites all over it."
The whale sighting comes as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Fisheries prepares to declare a whale "mortality event" in the region, according to DelawareOnline.com. That NOAA announcement could come as soon as Thursday, the report said.
A dead whale was found off the coast of Port Mahon, Del. a few days ago, the report said. Winds and rough weather have made it impossible to recover the whale decaying off Delaware, the report said.
Four whales have been stranded in Delaware waters in less than a year. In addition, there have been four strandings off Virginia and one off Long Island, N.Y. in the past year, according to the report.
Over the weekend, a young minke whale had to be euthanized after it became stranded on a Bronx beach. Tests determined it was suffering from chronic pneumonia, according to nydailynews.com.
In February, humpback whale was found dead along the shoreline of the Cohansey River in Cumberland County.
The previous month, a 25-ton baby humpback whale was found dead on a sandbar off the southern tip of Long Beach Island when a photographer taking aerial photos spotted it.
Days earlier, a rare whale washed up dead along a section of the northern Ocean County barrier island. The Blainville's beaked whale that washed up on Island Beach State Park
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.