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AN ENDANGERED WHALE that beached in New York City sadly died today despite a day-long effort to keep the emaciated 18-metre (60-foot) finback alive by spraying it with water.
“We are on the scene and the whale has passed,” Robert DiGiovanni, director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, told AFP.
Pic: AP Photo/Kathy Willens
The finback whale, the second biggest animal species in the world after the blue whale, was found ashore early Wednesday in the Breezy Point neighbourhood of Queens.
Police and firefighters began carefully spraying it with water to keep it alive until experts could take over.
Mendy Garron, a specialist from the National Marine Fisheries Service, told AFP on Wednesday that the outlook was not promising, describing the whale as “really emaciated.”
After a post-mortem examination, the next big challenge will be the “disposal of the carcass,” Gerron said on Thursday.
“You need a lot of heavy equipment… they are working on it right now,” she said.
Adult finbacks, which can reach up to 27 metres (88 feet) and weigh up to 70 tons, are found in all the world’s oceans and can live up to 100 years.
According to the Riverhead Foundation, which is based on Long Island, at least 25 species of whales and dolphins have been seen in the New York region.
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Not to worry, the Queen and Obama’s visit should kick extra tourism into gear any time now.. Lol
These figures and a decline in exports are the start of a further decline in economic activity.
The next Exchequer returns for the jan mar period will see a reduction in spend thus proving austerity is forcing the economy into a depression.
This allied to a budget taking 3.5 billion
out will lead to a bleak 2011/12
Part of the decrease may have to do with a slowdown in emigration also.
Please tell me you mean immigration Noel? ;)
What? People AREN’T going on holidays in the winter?
And partly the impact of circa 15 flights in and 15 flights out of the Galway Airport that are no more
The useless DAA should sell the old terminal building in Cork airport to Ryanair. Let them make a regional hub out of it like they wanted to do when the new one opened and then we’ll see the numbers rise…at the moment its just sitting there empty…lateral thinking is needed.
The decline in movements doesn’t necessarily correspond to passenger decline.
The Cork decline looks bad, but amounts to 6 movements a day. Then you look at what those movements were.
The Manx2 flight to Belfast, which was canned after the crash, accounted for 4 of them, yet the plane only had a capacity of 19 and usually carried 10-15 people.
Also gone are the Air SouthWest flights to Newquay and Plymouth after the airline ceased operating. Their aircraft would have been the same size that Aer Arann use.
And then there seem to be fewer ski charters.
Passenger numbers are only down by 2%, despite the large fall in flight movements.
have your say