Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2007 10:30:02 GMT -5
So we had a whale in the Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, this week. Apparently, the poor thing got lost during the Nor'easter, and wound up with us in Brooklyn. A rescue team was set to go out and nudge him back to safter, cleaner waters, but unfortunately, he didn't make it.
NY Daily News, 4/19/07
The wrong-way whale whose improbable journey to Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal captivated the city died yesterday before rescuers could coax it to freedom.
The cause of death won't be known until a necropsy is performed today, but experts said it appeared the marine mammal was much younger and smaller - and therefore more vulnerable - than originally thought.
Curiosity-seekers who had flocked to the water's edge since Tuesday mourned the dark gray, 12-foot Minke calf, who was named Sludgie the Whale.
"With everything that's happened after the Virginia shootings, we came here rooting for the whale, just for something good to happen," said Debra Clarke, 36, a personal organizer from Harlem.
"But it turns out these are days of tears."
Pat Simpson, 73, of Park Slope, suggested the Gowanus' lingering reputation as a cesspool might have played a role in Sludgie's demise.
"I feel very sad that it got trapped in a place where the water is so bad," she said.
The whale was first spotted in the Gowanus Canal on Tuesday, apparently after becoming disoriented during the weekend's nor'easter.
Marine biologists were monitoring its breathing and behavioral patterns. As it slowly swam south yesterday, they were hopeful it would find its way back to the open sea.
But about 4:45 p.m., there was some splashing in the water, and the scientists quickly drove to the spot to investigate.
"They saw that it was dead," said Kim Durham, a rescue expert from the Long Island-based Riverhead Foundation for Research and Preservation.
With the assistance of the NYPD, the Riverhead staff used a dinghy, ropes and grappling hooks to stop the 5,000-pound whale from sinking to the bottom.
Then they tied Sludgie to the pylons to await today's arrival of the Army Corps of Engineers, who will tow the carcass to the Caven Point Pier in Jersey City for the necropsy.
Before the sad ending to the whale tale, people across the city had been cheering on Sludgie.
Even Mayor Bloomberg.
"My thoughts are with the whale," he said at City Hall yesterday.
NY Daily News, 4/19/07
The wrong-way whale whose improbable journey to Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal captivated the city died yesterday before rescuers could coax it to freedom.
The cause of death won't be known until a necropsy is performed today, but experts said it appeared the marine mammal was much younger and smaller - and therefore more vulnerable - than originally thought.
Curiosity-seekers who had flocked to the water's edge since Tuesday mourned the dark gray, 12-foot Minke calf, who was named Sludgie the Whale.
"With everything that's happened after the Virginia shootings, we came here rooting for the whale, just for something good to happen," said Debra Clarke, 36, a personal organizer from Harlem.
"But it turns out these are days of tears."
Pat Simpson, 73, of Park Slope, suggested the Gowanus' lingering reputation as a cesspool might have played a role in Sludgie's demise.
"I feel very sad that it got trapped in a place where the water is so bad," she said.
The whale was first spotted in the Gowanus Canal on Tuesday, apparently after becoming disoriented during the weekend's nor'easter.
Marine biologists were monitoring its breathing and behavioral patterns. As it slowly swam south yesterday, they were hopeful it would find its way back to the open sea.
But about 4:45 p.m., there was some splashing in the water, and the scientists quickly drove to the spot to investigate.
"They saw that it was dead," said Kim Durham, a rescue expert from the Long Island-based Riverhead Foundation for Research and Preservation.
With the assistance of the NYPD, the Riverhead staff used a dinghy, ropes and grappling hooks to stop the 5,000-pound whale from sinking to the bottom.
Then they tied Sludgie to the pylons to await today's arrival of the Army Corps of Engineers, who will tow the carcass to the Caven Point Pier in Jersey City for the necropsy.
Before the sad ending to the whale tale, people across the city had been cheering on Sludgie.
Even Mayor Bloomberg.
"My thoughts are with the whale," he said at City Hall yesterday.