A 15-foot whale stranded on the shoreline of Orchard Beach died Sunday, despite the best efforts of police and marine experts.
The mammal, described as a minke whale, was spotted off the shoreline at around noon. Cops from the NYPD’s Emergency Services and Harbor units, along with officers from the Bronx’s 45th Precinct tried to rescue the mammal.
Members of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society tried to help the whale swim on its own, but it continued to sink, and would not survive in the wild, said society spokeswoman Rachel Bosworth. Marine experts euthanized the whale at about 6:30 p.m., she said.
Rob DiGiovanni, the society’s lead scientist, said that rescuers tried to support the whale, giving it water, and pushing it away from the shore, but the mammal wasn’t responding.
“The animal was underweight. It appears that it had been sick for a while,” he said. “It was not able to support itself on its own despite all the opportunities that we gave it to be able to swim out to deeper water.”
A necropsy will be performed Monday to determine the whale’s cause of death.
