A dead whale, approximately 40-feet long, washed up on the shore of Atlantic Beach sometime Wednesday.
The whale, which was in shallow water directly in front of The Sands Beach Club, was decomposed and its tail was sliced.
A few residents who were out on the beach said that a foul odor filled the air, and helicopters flew overhead on Wednesday.
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The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation will send people to Atlantic Beach to take tissue samples from the whale and analyze the cause of its death, according to officials at the scene. The whale’s corpse will most likely be chopped up and buried somewhere in the dunes.
A police officer at the scene, who asked not to be identified, said he had never seen a whale wash up on Atlantic Beach. The officer added that a dead dolphin had washed up on the shore in recent days.
