A 25-Foot Whale Washed Ashore In Brooklyn This Morning


Photo: Eddie Lopez
Whales are not having a good go of it lately. Just last week, three blue whale carcasses washed ashore in Newfoundland, Canada, stinking up two towns and threatening to explode (because that’s what dead bodies sometimes do).
Now, there are reports that this morning, a local sperm whale tragically lost his or her life when the 25-footer washed up on a Brooklyn shore.
The whale’s body was found near the Brooklyn Army Terminal around 9:30 a.m. this morning, but unlike its Newfoundland counterparts, the whale never landed on shore, but floated in shallow water just offshore for an as-yet-unknown amount of time.
Local resident, Eddie Lopez, was walking his dog when he spotted the whale, called it in and by 9:45 a.m. the NYPD arrived. Later in the day, a team from the Army Corps of Engineers moved the carcass to New Jersey where it was lifted onto a barge and sent to the Riverhead Foundation For Marine Research & Preservation to determine the cause of death.
“It had a major slash by the dorsal fin. It looked like it was hit by the propeller of a boat,” Lopez told the News.
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