Southampton Town Considering Whale Emergency Response Plan

The recent spate of whales washing up dead across Long Island has prompted the Town of Southampton officials to propose a whale emergency response plan.

Officials said the proposal came at the suggestion of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, the Hampton Bays-based nonprofit environmental organization that is tasked with deploying marine biologists whenever marine wildlife is found beached in the region.

“There’s been a couple of things over the last eight years that I’ve been supervisor where there really weren’t any plans in place,” Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said at the board’s September 7 work session. “There’s a ton of things involved with even securing the site if you have to hold the whale overnight.”

Southampton Town Councilperson Tommy John Schiavoni introduced the resolution, which was cosponsored by the rest of the board, but it was not immediately clear when the item may come up for a vote.

A 47-foot dead whale was found dead in Shinnecock Bay on June 1 and a 31-foot whale washed up in Southampton on December 2 before floating to Nappeague. Additional dead whales washed ashore up-island and in New Jersey amid an uptick that some environmentalists blame on offshore wind farm construction and others say is caused by more bait fish in the water increasing the chances of whales being fatally struck by ships.

“We’re going to see a lot more of these beached whales,” said Schneiderman. “The whale population is coming back, and with it the numbers of beached whales are going to increase.”