NATIONAL NEWS

Post-mortem exams being performed on 2 dead whales seen floating off New York this week

Jun 2, 2023, 10:38 AM

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — Two dead humpback whales were spotted floating in the waters off New York this week, officials said, part of a troubling rise in whale deaths in the region.

Necropsies were being performed Friday to determine what killed the two whales that were first seen Wednesday, one off eastern Long Island and one in Raritan Bay between New Jersey and the New York City borough of Staten Island.

The Long Island whale was spotted Wednesday about five miles (eight kilometers) off Wainscott, New York, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries spokesperson Andrea Gomez said.

Southampton town police reported Thursday that the whale had floated into Shinnecock Bay. Police and staffers from NOAA and the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society worked to secure the animal to the beach front and then drag it onto the shore where the necropsy could be performed, Sgt. Eric Sickles said.

Also on Wednesday, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society received a report of a dead humpback whale in Raritan Bay, Gomez said.

The whale was towed to shore on Thursday so that a post-mortem examination could be performed on Friday by the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, she said.

The two humpback deaths are part of a spate of whale fatalities in the region.

More than 30 dead whales have washed ashore along the East Coast so far this year, many of them in New Jersey and New York.

NOAA officials held a briefing in January to try to address claims by opponents of wind farms that the whale deaths might be linked to the offshore wind industry.

The officials said there was no evidence implicating wind farm development in the deaths of any of the whales that had been examined by scientists.

National News

Associated Press

Barges are bringing cranes to Baltimore to help remove bridge wreckage and open shipping route

BALTIMORE (AP) — Massive barges carrying cranes streamed toward Baltimore on Thursday to begin the challenging work of removing twisted metal and concrete in an attempt to open a key shipping route blocked by the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. U.S. Coast Guard officials said Wednesday night that the barges were on their […]

5 minutes ago

Associated Press

Russia vetoes UN resolution, abolishing monitoring of UN sanctions against North Korea by UN experts

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution on Thursday, effectively abolishing the monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea by a panel of U.N. experts. The Security Council resolution sponsored by the United States would have extended the mandate of the panel for a year, but Russia’s veto will halt its operations. The […]

9 minutes ago

Associated Press

Dethroned crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried to be sentenced for defrauding FTX investors

NEW YORK (AP) — Former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, facing the potential of decades in prison, waited to hear his fate Thursday as a sentencing proceeding began in a New York court to assess the penalty for his role in the 2022 collapse of FTX, once one of the world’s most popular platforms for trading […]

11 hours ago

Associated Press

Doctors visiting a Gaza hospital are stunned by the war’s toll on Palestinian children

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned. One toddler died from a brain injury caused by an Israeli strike that fractured his skull. His […]

11 hours ago

Associated Press

US military drains fuel from tank facility that leaked fuel into Pearl Harbor’s drinking water

HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. military said it’s finished draining million of gallons of fuel from an underground fuel tank complex in Hawaii that poisoned 6,000 people when it leaked jet fuel into Pearl Harbor’s drinking water in 2021. Joint Task Force Red Hill began defueling the tanks in October after completing months of repairs […]

12 hours ago

Associated Press

Former correctional officer at women’s prison in California sentenced for sexually abusing inmates

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A former correctional officer at a federal California women’s prison known for numerous misconduct allegations was sentenced to six years in prison for sexually abusing five inmates, federal officials announced Wednesday. Nakie Nunley, who supervised inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, becomes the seventh correctional officer sentenced to prison for […]

12 hours ago

Post-mortem exams being performed on 2 dead whales seen floating off New York this week