Dozens stand vigil for whale stranded in East Hampton

They gathered by the dozens, hoping beyond hope to see a beached whale miraculously survive, but realizing it was in the throes of death.

The humpback whale, mired in the low surf on an East Hampton beach for a third day, provided a somber show Thursday afternoon to those who careened through the dunes to see it. Several times a minute, it sent a fine spray of water vapor into the air and "fluked," jerking its great tail up.

The charcoal-gray whale, its right eye open and visible to biologists and onlookers with binoculars, waved a white dorsal fin up and down.

Several of those watching questioned the efforts of would-be rescuers, which, they observed, seemed to some to merely prolong the whale's pain. "If they're not going to save it, then put it to sleep quickly," said Alejandra Restrepo, 17, an East Hampton High senior who came to see the whale all three days.

Local veterinarians were initially delayed by a lack of supplies, of available staff and the dangers of tending to an enormous mammal flipping around in the waves.

But Thursday, they tried at least twice to ease the whale's suffering by starting the process of euthanasia, after they said it was too sick to save.

Sometime after 7 p.m. - in a second such attempt - they shot several darts of tranquilizers into the whale, hoping to sedate it enough to administer a lethal solution. While the animal seemed listless, specialists said they were uncertain when or if the euthanasia could take place. An ambulance stood by in case the toxic solution spattered on anyone.

Robert DiGiovanni, director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, said, "We're a team of experts working together and we're always thinking about the best interest of the animal and of everyone in the community."

Some experts speculated that the whale, about a year old, might have become separated from its mother or injured and disoriented. It probably stretches 25 feet long and weighs about 10,000 pounds - as much as four Toyota Corollas.

Earlier in the day, David Morin, a marine mammal biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, received a call about the whale while traveling in Maine. He picked up equipment for giving drugs to whales, then drove to the Woods Hole Institute on Cape Cod to get a "giant" dose of sedatives, then took a ferry to the North Fork.

Wearing a dry suit, in the early morning darkness, he approached the animal, launched two injection devices into the whale's foot-thick blubber, and waited.

In the afternoon, the whale continued to pound its fluke in the sea. Morin tied a rope around the whale to try to drag it onto the beach, where it could move less, but the effort was too great and he gave up.

With Debbie Tuma