EL PAÍS offers the América Futura section open for its daily and global informative contribution on sustainable development. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe here.
A huge humpback whale washed up in the early hours of Tuesday off the coast of New York. This male specimen of about 12 meters in length has left the residents of the town of Hempstead, Long Island speechless. “It’s the biggest whale we’ve seen in the last decade,” city supervisor Don Calvin told local media. With this there are already 15 whales that have reached the east coast of the United States since the beginning of December.
“We had to move the whale to higher ground due to high tide. We had to bring in a heavy crane. And the cables were breaking because of the tonnage that was required to actually get it to higher ground, because of the tide,” Calvin said. “Seeing a whale of that size so close is impressive. But the circumstances surrounding it, for me, were very, very sad and almost heartbreaking. Something so beautiful lying there,” he said. “You can’t avoid people’s curiosity and I understand it,” he added, referring to the endless number of neighbors who came to take photos and question the obvious: Why has this happened?
Environmental authorities still do not know what is behind this mysterious wave of deaths among mammals. Some environmentalists attribute it to the development of offshore wind farms in the area, although there is still no evidence. Cindy Ziph, director of Clean Ocean Action, asked the BBC to start an investigation to clarify what is harming the whales.
The city of Hempstead plans to fence in the whale so officials can quickly perform a necropsy, initially scheduled for Tuesday. Just two weeks ago, another 12-ton whale was found off the coast of New Jersey, with clear signs of having been struck by a ship.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported 178 humpback whale strandings in 13 Atlantic states since 2016. The agency has called those deaths an “unusual mortality event.”
