Lucas Jackson/Reuters The whale was moved from its resting spot on the beach to higher ground for the necropsy.The necropsy of the emaciated 60-foot finback whale that beached itself at Breezy Point in Queens found lesions in the animal's stomach and kidneys on Friday, but it is not clear what, if anything, they had to do with the animal's death, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service said.
The necropsy did not turn up any evidence of human-caused injury, said the biologist, Mendy Garron, the service's regional marine-mammal resc ue coordinator. Tissue samples from the whale, a male whose age has not yet been determined, have been sent off for analysis, Ms. Garron said. “No cause of death will be determined till those results come back,†she said.
There was no food found in the whale's stomach, Ms. Garron added. The whale, which washed up on Wednesday still alive, was declared dead on Thursday.
After the necropsy, the whale was buried Friday afternoon in the dunes on land belonging to Gateway National Recreation Area.
