Top cop: Missing tranquilizer dart no cause for concern

The 2 1/2-foot long tranquilizer dart that went missing in the waters off an East Hampton beach has never been found, but that's no reason for beachgoers to worry this holiday weekend, a police official said Friday.

"I would allow my children to go there," East Hampton Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen said. "That's how safe I believe it is."

Larsen said he has been reassured that the dart - missing since it bounced off a beached baby humpback whale in April - poses no risks to beachgoers.

"I'm told it would take a lot to deliver the injection," Larsen said Friday, adding, "and that's if the tranquilizer has not been previously expelled - which there's a good chance it has."

The dart, one of several fired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over a span of days in an attempt to euthanize the humpback whale stranded along Wyborg Beach, instead bounced off the whale and disappeared into the surf.

Police divers searched the shoreline in the area with metal detectors and, Larsen said, a tractor later raked the beach but the dart was never found.

Larsen said NOAA officials told him the dart could be buried in the sand or it could have floated out to sea. The answer, he said, is simply unknown.

Officials said the dart contained a 50-milliliter dose of the sedatives Midazolam and medetomidine.

Larsen said Friday that NOAA officials told him they believe the dart partially penetrated the whale before bouncing off and landing in the ocean and that, likely, the tranquilizer was expelled then.

The projectile was likely drained but could pose a danger if not handled properly, Trevor Spradlin, a marine mammal biologist with NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, told Newsday in April.

He said beachgoers should treat it as a biohazard.

If they find it, they shouldn't touch it but should immediately call authorities, he said.

With Keith Herbert and Yamiche Alcindor