Sei Whale Beaches on Rockaway Beach, Likely from Vessel Strike

A 40-foot sei whale carcass washed ashore on Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, on Thursday, drawing crowds of onlookers and prompting safety warnings from authorities as experts investigate the animal's death.

The endangered sei whale, first spotted floating approximately 15 miles south of Long Island on Tuesday, was confirmed by the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society as the same individual that beached itself near Beach 95th Street. Officials from the society, along with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries division, quickly secured the site with barriers and caution tape to manage public access. The male whale, weighing an estimated 30 to 40 tons, emitted a strong odor of decay that residents described as pungent, reminiscent of a similar incident involving a humpback whale in the area nearly a year earlier.

On Friday, a necropsy examination revealed abrasions and internal bruising consistent with a vessel strike as the likely cause of death, according to preliminary findings from the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. Tissue...