CRUEL NATURE

Whale Dead on Queens Beach

Beast was 60 feet long.

A 60-foot-long whale is dead after lying on a Queens, N.Y., beach for more than a day. Biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were monitoring the beached finback since a passerby spotted it and called 911 Wednesday morning. It was still breathing Thursday morning and NOAA had planned to euthanize it humanely if nature didn’t take its course overnight. Now biologists are developing a plan for conducting a necropsy and disposal of the whale. Long Island–based marine research and preservation group the Riverhead Foundation will determine what to do with the massive corpse. “In the past they have been buried on the beach, disposed of in a landfill, or towed out to sea,” said the director of the group.