Riverhead Foundation looking into death of whale found beached in Hamptons

Marine biologists are looking into what killed a beaked whale that was discovered Thursday beached in Bridgehampton.

The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation received a call to their 24-hour hotline Thursday from a passerby who had seen a whale carcass at about 3:30 p.m. on Scott Cameron Beach.

A team of researchers and volunteers, with help from Southampton Village police and highway department, responded to the scene Friday morning, said foundation spokeswoman Rachel Bosworth. The team took the whale to the foundation's facility in Riverhead for a necropsy, which will determine the cause of death.

Necropsy results are expected Friday night.

The whale appears to be a male beaked whale. It is about 11 feet long and weighs 1,071 pounds, Bosworth said.

There are several types of beaked whales, but three True's beaked whales, which are considered rare, have shown up on East End beaches in the last few years. A mother and calf washed ashore in Southampton and Bridgehampton in January 2014 and another calf, believed to have died of starvation, washed up in Westhampton in June.

Those who find stranded animals should call the Riverhead Foundation's stranding hotline at 631-369-9829.