TOMS RIVER - Experts say the roughly 50-ton dead whale that washed ashore in Chadwick Beach on Tuesday appears to have been an endangered sei whale and it may have been killed by a ship, the Asbury Park Press reported.
Witnesses told NJ Advance Media that the dead whale washed ashore near North Surf Road at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Brigantine-based Marine Mammal Stranding Center, said the whale may have been a Sei whale, but the poor condition of the carcass made a firm identification difficult. For the same reasons, he said, it will be difficult to determine how the whale died.
"It has been so chewed up. The sharks have really been tearing it up," he said.
The 40-foot whale had been rolling in the surf since Tuesday night but center staff could not get it out of the water due to risks from the surf and sharks that followed the whale's carcass, Schoelkopf told APP.com.
Schoelkopf added that it was most likely the same whale that was spotted by a Norwegian cruise ship about 13 miles outside of New York Harbor and that currents carried it to Ocean County.
The Toms River Department of Public Works assisted the Marine Mammal Stranding Center officials with removing the whale, which was cut up and taken to a dump to be buried, the report said.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sei whales are an endangered species that can grow to be up to 60-feet long and weigh up to 100,000 pounds.
NOAA says they prefer temperate waters and are commonly found in the Gulf of Maine and other western parts of the North Atlantic during the summer months.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.