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Whale Euthanized After Washing Up on Shore of Orchard Beach

By Eddie Small | April 24, 2017 10:18am
 A 15-foot minke whale was euthanized after washing up on the shore of Orchard Beach Sunday.
A 15-foot minke whale was euthanized after washing up on the shore of Orchard Beach Sunday.
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Mircea C/Shutterstock

ORCHARD BEACH — Officials euthanized on Sunday a minke whale that washed up on the shore of Orchard Beach.

The 15-foot whale washed up on the shore of the beach in The Bronx, which prompted an all-out effort by the NYPD Special Ops, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society and multiple other agencies to save the creature.

However, they were ultimately unable to do so, and officials made the decision to euthanize the whale on Sunday around 6:30 p.m. The AMCS is now investigating what caused the whale to get stranded on the beach in the first place.

"Despite best efforts to get the whale to swim freely, it continued to sink and restrand," the AMCS wrote on its Facebook page. "The most humane course of action was to euthanize the whale to prevent further suffering, as it would not have survived in the wild."

Multiple visitors to Orchard Beach on Sunday posted about the whale on social media.

 

#beachedwhale #orchardbeach #thebronx

A post shared by Sergio Oquendo (@sirgeeoooooh) on

This is the not the first whale to wash up on the shores of a New York City beach recently, as a dead humpback whale was found on Rockaway Beach earlier this month.