Will the whale carcass buried on Staten Island beach this weekend attract sharks?

A whale carcass is seen in the waters off of Great Kills Park on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Staten island Advance/Maura Grunlund)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — After the carcass of a 38-foot humpback whale that washed up on Great Kills Park was examined over the weekend by scientists, it was buried on-site in the sand. But can the buried whale now attract sharks to the area?

An old adage claims that burying a whale carcass on the beach will attract sharks — but recent research from Southern Cross University has debunked that theory.

The two-year study, published in 2019 in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, first began after a humpback whale beached itself and died in Yuraygir National Park in New South Wales in 2017. It was buried on the beach, but later exhumed after local residents said it would attract sharks.

Researchers at the university’s National Marine Science Centre in Coffs Harbour, located in New South Wales in Australia, found that decomposition plumes from whales remain close to a burial site.

Therefore, the practice of burying a whale at the beach would be a safe option, as long as it’s done correctly.

“Beach burial has long been a common method to dispose whale carcasses,” said James Tucker, lead researcher of the study. “Communities, however, fear this practice attracts shark because the leachate travels with groundwater toward the ocean. Our first study implies those concerns may be unfounded, helping authorities in their carcass management.”

The project involved two experiments — one at the beach and the other in a laboratory, which mapped the decomposition products from a beach burial, as well as the time taken for plumes to disappear.

“Our experiments showed that, provided certain conditions are met, those decomposition plumes are unlikely to reach the ocean where they could be sensed by sharks,” Tucker said. “Both field and laboratory experiments revealed groundwater is very effective at downgrading the whale decomposition products.”

The key recommendation in choosing a burial site is to ensure minimal levels of groundwater movement.

Tucker recommended that authorities select a site where there is no water, or limited water passing through. To account for any high tides, the carcass needs to be buried as far as possible from the ocean.

This image shows scientists from the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society on Saturday examining the dead humpback whale that washed up in Great Kills Park on Friday. (Courtesy/Carmine Taverna)

WHALE WASHED ASHORE ON STATEN ISLAND

An examination of the dead humpback whale that was first discovered Friday floating in the waters off Staten Island has found evidence of two human-related injuries, but a cause of death is still being determined, scientists say.

Scientists from the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS) were at Great Kills Park in Gateway National Recreation Area on Saturday afternoon studying the male whale after it washed up on Friday.

They examined the whale and collected samples, as work continued to determine a cause of death. The Long Island-based non-for-profit organization has been working alongside the state Department of Conservation, city Parks Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries.

The team, led by Kimberly Durham, the AMSEAS necropsy coordinator, documented evidence of two human-caused injuries: healing wounds around the mouth and head consistent with entanglement in gear, and a large piece of metal debris lodged in his intestines, causing damage to the digestive tract.

Since the whale had food in its stomach, Rob DiGiovanni, founder and chief scientist of AMSEAS, predicted that whatever happened to cause its death happened “acutely or rapidly.”

“So when you look at natural causes, when you think about people being sick, you get sick, you might not eat as much and you lose a bit of weight,” he said. “This kind of lends itself to something that happened more acutely. So right now, the next steps are, our team, our facility is processing all the samples that are collected and then those are going to be sent out to the pathologist for further analyses. That can take weeks to months to get that back.”

The cause of death remains undetermined until samples collected during the exam can be analyzed.

Back in 2019, after a dead Minke whale washed ashore, an AMSEAS spokesperson told the Advance/SILive.com that burial on the beach is the most natural way to dispose of large, deceased whales.

The Staten Island area has seen its fair share of whale sightings over the years. In June 2020, A humpback whale was seen off the coast of South Beach by NYPD Harbor Unit members patrolling the waters. The mammal was seen breaching the surface multiple times.

In 2019, several Staten Islanders sent in their own photos and videos of whale sightings while boating in the waters of Raritan Bay, Great Kills Harbor and other areas off the coast of the borough.

Friday’s discovery of the humpback whale prompted the attention of emergency responders, as well as walkers, runners, cyclists and other visitors who frequent the park.

According to NOAA data, since 2016, 31 humpback whales have been stranded in New York. About half of deaths came from human-induced mortality events.

In addition, it is a part of what researchers are calling an “unusual mortality event,” where elevated whale mortalities have been recorded along the Atlantic coast from Maine through Florida.

If you see a dead or injured marine mammal or sea turtle, AMSEAS asks you to call the New York State Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Hotline at 631-369-9829. If you are outside New York, call 866-755-6622.

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