An 18-foot carcass of a minke whale was washed ashore on a beach in Coney Island, New York on Monday afternoon.
According to local authorities, the dead animal was found on a beachfront near the Boardwalk at Ocean Parkway at around 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
A section of the beach was closed off for several hours to allow marine experts from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and the State Department of Environmental Conservation Police to study the body of the minke whale.
Kim Durham of the Riverhead Foundation performed a necropsy on the beached dead whale.
"We're here because we want to determine the cause of mortality—if it was a natural mortality or did something like a ship strike it," Durham said. "Was this animal eating, did it have signs of injury or illness? Or was it a healthy animal that was in the wrong place, wrong time."
Dead baby back whale washed up today on #ConeyIsland beach pic.twitter.com/HFkotxIRsT
— NYPD 60th Precinct (@NYPD60Pct) June 8, 2015
Here at Coney where a dead Minke whale washed up https://t.co/hZee9PEti0 pic.twitter.com/0xXpdtUah1 — katie honan (@katie_honan) June 8, 2015
While details on the examination of the body have yet to be confirmed, it would appear that the gigantic animal was hit by a propeller of a boat and had died from injuries sustained from the incident. Authorities believe the carcass was then washed ashore soon afterward.
The dead whale was removed from the beach on Monday evening.
Durham explained that minke whales are known to be the smallest members of a family of large whales that includes humpbacks, finbacks and blue whales. She said that it was unusual for a minke whale to find its way at Coney Island.
The only other instance that a minke whale ended up in the area was when one of the animals wound up near Rockaway peninsula.
In May 2014, locals spotted a dead whale floating near the Brooklyn Army Terminal. The animal, which was eventually determined to be a sei whale, measured around 25 feet in length.
The whale carcass was retrieved by members of the Army Corp of Engineers and taken to a facility in New Jersey, where the Riverhead Foundation conducted a necropsy on the animal.
The sei whale appeared to have been impaled by one of the luxury cruise liners traveling in the area at the time.
Photo: Martin Cathrae | Flickr
