NEW YORK, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- A 60-foot finback whale that ran ashore on a New York City beach died Thursday morning, biologists said.
Around 10:45 a.m. Robert DiGiovanni Jr., executive director of the Riverhead Foundation who was called to try to rescue the whale, said the mammal hadn't taken a breath in more than 45 minutes, The New York Times reported.
The whale came ashore Wednesday morning in the Breezy Point section of Queens and was spotted by nearby residents. The beach is controlled by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which called in experts to try to save the animal.
Instead, they are trying to determine if adequate resources can reach the site to perform a necropsy to see determine whether the whale was sick or injured before it came on shore.
