Whale washed up in Hampton’s

A Dead humpback whale has washed ashore up in the Hampton’s Long Island earlier today on 4/16/2013.

A Riverhead marine group is working with local authorities on a plan for conducting a necropsy and removing a dead humpback whale from a Hampton Bays beach, the group’s director said Wednesday.

Robert DiGiovanni, senior biologist and director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, said he expects to have the whale, estimated to be about 35 feet long, out of the water and removed from the beach by Thursday.

DiGiovanni said the necropsy probably could be performed Thursday on the beach, and his scientists are in the process of “determining what resources local authorities have” to ensure the procedure and subsequent removal can be completed efficiently.

The whale washed ashore on the beach off Dune Road, just west of Triton Lane, about 8 a.m. Wednesday.

“It’s not an animal fresh dead, but it has not been dead a long time, either,” DiGiovanni said.

Late Wednesday morning, a handful of people came to see and take photos of the humpback whale. By noon, a steady stream of visitors had come to view the dead whale.