50-foot fin whale beached, likely dying at Delaware Seashore State Park on Sunday

A fin whale that beached itself at Delaware Seashore State Park on Sunday morning is likely dying.

A crowd of 30 or so people watched the whale from behind caution tape erected by the nonprofit Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute around 2 p.m. Sunday. It thrashed its tail as people quietly urged it on, but made no progress.

The whale is a young fin whale, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman told the crowd. It's emaciated and has been sick for a long time, Thurman said, but there's no way of knowing what caused it to beach unless a necropsy can be performed.

DELAWARE MARINE LIFE:Fin whale dies after beaching at Cape Henlopen in 2021

"This is a species that lives way off the coast, so they would never come in near shore, except when they get too weak to be able to surface to breathe and their instinct is to get out of the water," she said.

On Sunday afternoon, the whale's lungs were already being affected by its own body weight due to being out of the water, according to Thurman. She and her colleagues had hoped to at least sedate the whale.

"But it's too dangerous, with the water going around her, she can roll on us and we would be killed," Thurman said.

The 50-foot whale weighs 1 ton per foot, Thurman said.

"Unless she can reposition herself so we can safely get to her to try to sedate her, we're just gonna have to watch," she continued.

She warned it could be very hard for people to witness, especially children.

"We wish so much that we could do more for her," Thurman said. "But she came in because she was dying."

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control representatives were on the scene, along with some heavy equipment, such as a backhoe. When another fin whale beached itself and died at the nearby Cape Henlopen State Park in 2022, it was buried there on the beach.

MERR:How this Lewes nonprofit has spearheaded marine animal conservation in Delaware

For the Delaware Seashore whale, however, there is no definite plan. The tide was coming in Sunday afternoon, and in the area where the whale beached, the water comes all the way up to the dunes. In fact, during a recent storm, the ocean breached the dunes and spilled onto Coastal Highway.

Delaware Online/The News Journal will share new information as soon as it becomes available.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on Southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.