15-ton baby whale turns up in New York

NEW YORK, April 18 (UPI) -- Wildlife officials Wednesday were monitoring a 30,000-pound young minke whale that somehow ended up in a New York City industrial canal.

The 15-foot dark gray whale with white speckles was first spotted in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn Tuesday afternoon. Kim Durham, rescue program director for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation responded, The New York Post reported.

"This is definitely not a place for a whale to be," Durham said. "We didn't see any obvious signs of trauma, and it does not appear to be emaciated."

Durham said the major weekend storm that hit the northeast could have disoriented the whale. She said it was bad timing, as flooding likely led to raw sewage ending up in the canal.

The minke is one of the smallest of the endangered baleen whale variety, which filter food from water. The report said it was unlikely there was sufficient plankton in the canal to sustain the whale for long.

Marine experts will watch the whale in hopes it will soon make its own way back to friendlier waters, as there are no obstacles for it to do so, Newsday reported.