Beached Whale Presumed Dead

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The whale lay in the shallows Wednesday afternoon.

The 60-foot finback whale that beached itself at Breezy Point in Queens Wednesday appears to be dead, biologists said Thursday morning.

The national fisheries officials who spotted the whale in the morning “have not seen it take a breath” in at least 45 minutes, Robert DiGiovanni Jr., executive director of the Riverhead Foundation, said at 10:45 a.m.

“We can basically say that it's dead,” Mr. DiGiovanni said.

Biologists from the foundation, the region's official marine-mamm al rescue organization, still need to assess the animal and expect to do so in the coming hours, Mr. DiGiovanni said.

A biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, Mendy Garron, said that the whale was on National Park Service land, in the Gateway National Recreation Area, and that the fisheries service had contacted the National Park Service “to see if we can get heavy equipment to the site to do a necropsy.”

The park service is also expected to help dispose of the whale's body, Ms. garron said.

“I'm waiting for a callback from their logistics coordinator to see if they have landfills they've worked with in the past or if there is a burial option,” she said.