A humpback whale found stranded on a sandbar off the southern tip of Long Beach Island died Sunday, officials said.
The whale was first spotted by a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection aerial team around 3 p.m. on Friday off the west side of Beach Haven in shallow water, according to a statement from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.
The Coast Guard was called in and a helicopter crew was able to relocate the whale early Saturday morning as a team from the stranding center was transported via boat to the new location to assess the mammal’s condition, the center said.
The young, 29-foot whale was found to be lethargic and very thin and it had wounds consistent with a previous propeller strike on its left and right dorsal side, officials said.
The team determined that the whale would not likely survive as mammals stranded for any length of time often suffer traumatic injuries because their own body weight causes crushing damage to their internal organs, authorities said.
It was unclear how long the whale was stranded before it was found on Friday afternoon, the center said.
The decision was made to humanely euthanize the whale to prevent further suffering. In order to do so, the body would have to be removed from the site as the body becomes highly toxic after it dies, investigators said.
“Local landing sites were unavailable due to heavy beach erosion from last week’s storm which hindered removal of the animal from the area for proper disposal, so an alternative method of euthanasia would need to be employed,” the center said in its statement. “Unfortunately, the incoming tide and approaching darkness prohibited this method from being used on Saturday evening.”
Stranded Whale 10/19/25
The stranding team administered sedatives to the whale to keep it comfortable until they could attempt to move it on Sunday morning and the animal was monitored throughout the night, authorities said
On Sunday morning, Sea Tow of Atlantic City went out to check on the whale shortly after high tide and discovered that it had died during the night, officials said. Stranding center staff arrived a short time later to perform an examination to confirm that the whale was dead.
It was identified by Gotham Whale as NYCO476, a humpback whale that was first seen in the New York Bight on Oct. 2 by American Princess Cruises, the center said. At that time, it was evident that the young whale had experienced significant trauma due to propeller strikes that were still in the process of healing. The wounds were impacting the animal’s ability to feed, as evidenced by its very thin body condition.
“Our entire team is deeply saddened by every deceased animal that we investigate, but the ones that hit the hardest are animals like this young whale who never got the chance to contribute to their species,” the center said in its statement.
In early August, a minke whale died in the Barnegat Bay a short time after videos showed it collide with a boat which nearly capsized as a person was thrown overboard.
Chris Sheldon
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