Dead humpback whale washes up at Smith Point park in Shirley

Investigators are trying to determine what killed the 30-foot-long humpback whale that was discovered washed ashore Friday morning at Smith Point County Park in Shirley.

The Atlantic Marine Conservation Society said it was notified of the discovery by Suffolk County Parks Police and said it will conduct a necropsy — an animal autopsy — with assistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Suffolk County Parks Department, and the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.

"Information gathered through this examination will include measurements and photographs, along with biological samples collected to learn more about the whale's physiology, and document any factors that may have contributed to the animal's death,"  the conservation society  said in a statement.

Since 2016, NOAA Fisheries said researchers have recorded a higher number of dead humpback whales — 205 — along the Atlantic coast between Maine and Florida, what the agency calls an "unusual mortality event." That includes seven this year in New York. Last year, the state had two.

In those seven-plus years, New York has seen 41 humpback whale deaths, NOAA Fisheries said, tied for most with Massachusetts.

Necropsy results on about half of the 205 whales recorded since 2016 showed about 40% died after human interactions including vessel strikes or entanglement in fishing gear, according to NOAA Fisheries. To date, no humpback whale deaths since the beginning of the "unusual mortality event" have been attributed to offshore wind activities, according to the agency.

Newsday reported earlier this year that federal regulators administering wind-farm plans said there's no evidence that acoustic surveys to map the sea bottom were behind an unusual numbers of whale deaths last winter, including 11 on New York and New Jersey shores alone. But conservation groups and fishing advocates question assumptions about the claimed low impacts.

There have been other discoveries of dead whales in the region in recent months.

On June 27, a decomposed humpback washed up on East Atlantic Beach in Hempstead. That whale likely died at sea and washed ashore, an  Atlantic Marine Conservation Society scientist said.

On June 1, a dead humpback whale was found floating in Shinnecock Inlet. It likely died of blunt force trauma, officials said after a necropsy. Its injuries, they said, were consistent with a vessel strike.

On May 19, a whale was found washed ashore at Field 5 at Robert Moses State Park, officials said.

Biologists say whales are becoming more common off Long Island, feeding with dolphins and sharks on schools of bunker fish closer to shore.

A separate mortality event is taking place for minke whales, biologists said. They are investigating if those deaths are caused by health issues such as infectious disease or heart conditions.

NOAA Fisheries urges the public to immediately report any sightings of live whales in distress or stranded or dead whales. That can be done by calling the Greater Atlantic Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline at 866-755-6622.

Do not approach or touch injured or dead marine mammals, the agency says on its website. 

With John Asbury and Mark Harrington

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”