Team tends to dying young whale stranded on NY beach
By APThursday, April 8, 2010
Team tends to dying whale on NY beach
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. — A team worked Thursday to ease the suffering of a young humpback whale as it lay dying on a Long Island beach.
The 20- to 25-foot-long whale, less than a year old, was found stranded Tuesday. Marine scientists said that if freed, the animal would not be able to survive on its own.
David Morin, a marine mammal biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the original plan was to euthanize the whale. But the plan had to be changed partly because of concerns that a lethal injection that missed would leave the drugs in the water.
“Instead of becoming a euthanasia attempt, it became a sedative attempt to ease the animal’s suffering,” Morin said.
The least non-invasive plan would be to let Nature take its course, but the animal could take days to die and would be suffering, said Mendy Garron, a regional marine mammal stranding coordinator with the fisheries service.
The team planned to make another attempt to euthanize the whale.
Scientists believe the whale was likely headed from breeding grounds in the Caribbean to feeding grounds off the coast of New England, a normal migratory route.
