Video of 54-foot whale washed up on LBI (Opinion)

This is not something you see every day. Actually this is something you might never see again.

On Sunday, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center had a situation on its hands. A 54-foot-long fin whale had washed up on the beach in LBI. The center joined local authorities, and upon examination they feel this creature was injured by a ship.

There was a large impact wound on its right side. Additionally it was found with numerous 18-inch to 24-inch bite wounds.

They believe large sharks set in on the whale while it was wounded and basically fed off of it until it died and washed up in the surf.

For hours, people gathered and snapped photos and posted them on social media. This video, I’m sure one of many, of the dead male fin whale was taken where it came ashore in Barnegat Light. That’s between 19th and 20th avenues on the northern end of the island.

Crews decided to bury the whale there at that spot which is often the case in these situations. The job was done by noon.

If you think 54 feet is big, that’s not even average for this type of whale. The average is 61 feet for a male. The females are even bigger at an average 66 feet. It’s the second longest whale next to the blue whale. A male fin whale in the Northern Hemisphere averages over 42 tons.

Roy Chapman Andrews, a past director of the American Museum of Natural History, once called the fin whale, “the greyhound of the sea…for its beautiful, slender body is built like a racing yacht and the animal can surpass the speed of the fastest ocean steamship.”

Unfortunately, this regal creature met a ship it couldn’t outrace.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.