Whale In Amagansett Latest Among Surge Of Whale Deaths

A 35-foot-long female humpback whale that washed up on an Amagansett beach over the weekend was the fourth dead whale found off Long Island this year — the third in as many weeks — and only the latest in a sudden surge of more than 250 whale deaths along the Atlantic coastline in the last four years, largely due to interactions with humans.

In just the last three years, there have been 49 whales of various species washed ashore on Long Island alone, according to marine biologists from the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, a non-profit marine mammal protection group that is the designated responding agency whenever a whale, dolphin, seal or sea turtle is found on land, dead or alive, or in distress in the water.

Whale “strandings” as the marine scientists call the discovery of dead whales on land or at sea, have been on the rise since 2007 in the New York Bight region in general, and have spiked since 2017.

Prior to 2007, large whale strandings occurred in the region, on average, only every 619 days — or once every 18 months or so. In 2019, dead whales were found an average of only 26 days apart.

This year, the four strandings have included three teenaged humpbacks, all of which showed signs of being healthy at least shortly prior to their deaths: their stomachs were full of still undigested food and they had thick layers of blubber. A minke whale, found dead earlier this year in western Long Island Sound, appeared to have been ill, AMCS founder Robert DiGiovanni said.

The whale that washed up at Atlantic Beach in Amagansett on Saturday evening was dissected and examined by AMCS biologists on the beach on Sunday morning. While the whale, a female, had shown no visible signs of a blunt trauma from a ship on its exterior, there was some bruising that could have been caused by a strike, the group said. But, similar to the examination of another young humpback whale that washed ashore in Westhampton in May, the results of the necropsy examination were inconclusive.

Mr. DiGiovanni said it was not clear exactly what is causing the steep rise in the number of whales killed around Long Island. He surmised that it could be connected to a rise in the number of whales that are spending time in the region because of the recent resurgence of a species of baitfish called menhaden or bunker that is a favorite prey of many marine species.

“We have a lot of food here, so these animals are sticking around more, which could be a factor,” Mr. DiGiovanni said. “It’s a normal historical route for them, so it’s not surprising they would be here. We did have a whaling industry here.”

He also noted that humpback whales have seen their populations recover in the Atlantic and have been removed from the Endangered Species List, so the number of deaths could be indicative of an expanding population overall.

The whale’s main migration route also crosses over the commercial shipping lanes, so they are at heightened threat of ship strikes.

Humpbacks can grow to 50 feet long and 30 tons, migrate along between the Carolinas and Canada throughout the year, and are the most common whale species found in Long Island waters.

Last summer, humpbacks were frequently seen feeding very close to shore. In August, one became entangled in a commercial fishing net a few hundred feet off a Sagaponack bathing beach for several hours before freeing itself.

The surge in whale mortality is not isolated to Long Island. Along the entire Eastern Seaboard there have been 245 humpback, north Atlantic right whales and minke whales killed since 2016 — in what the federal National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration calls an “unusual mortality event.”

A total of 124 humpback whales have been killed — 24 of them off Long Island. About half of the whales that were examined by scientists showed telltale signs of having been hit by ships.

Nearly 10 percent of all the endangered north Atlantic right whales in existence have been killed in the last three years — 34 in all — primarily from ship strikes or entanglement in fishing gear. The majority of those deaths have taken place in Canadian waters and involved entanglements in lobster traps, which the Canadian government is now implementing new fishing practice guidelines to address.

And 86 minke whales, the smallest of the whale species to frequent our region, have died in that same time period. While many of those have been killed by vessel strikes or entanglements in fishing gear, a number of the whales in the species have shown signs of disease.

The effects of wind and currents, and the proximity to the shipping lanes, make Long Island’s south-facing beaches the most common catch-all for whales killed in the New York Bight region.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc lamented this week that the frequency with which whales have been found on local shores means the town has honed its process of disposing of the gargantuan whale bodies. While Southampton Town typically digs a large hole in the beach itself and buries the remains of the whales, East Hampton uses trucks to haul the carcasses to an inland disposal site.

Since it’s founding in 2016, when it took over marine mammal response duties from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research, AMCS has responded to more than 700 beached, injured or distressed whales, dolphins, seals and sea turtles. The group has just six employees and gets most of its funding from donations and educational grants.

“We have had a busy few years,” Mr. DiGiovanni said. “We picked the best-worst years to go into business.”