EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. (WPIX)—
A beached 30-foot-long baby hump back whale that somehow became stranded on Main Beach in East Hampton Tuesday morning will likely be left to die.Members from the Riverhead Foundation, a marine research and preservation organization, say the whale is still nursing and there is no way to nourish it back to health.
"To have one that is alive and on the beach very troublesome," Chuck Bowman, President of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, told PIX News. "It is a juvenile hump back whale about 20 to 25 feet long. We believe it got separated from its family group or its mother."
Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen Jr. said the whale, which was discovered around 8 a.m., did not appear physically injured.
"They eat plankton and roam thousands of miles....and can't be nursed back to health," said Bowman. "They are dependent on their mother. You know, they're still drinking milk, they don't eat food....even if we could provide that caloric intake they grow to be 40 to 50-feet long. There is no place in the world that's going to have the ability to keep it."
