Beached

There is currently a whale washed up ashore at Jones Beach:

I think its interesting how the beaching of a whale draws so much media attention - its like when a D list celebrity dies of a drug overdose and they become posthumously famous (Britney Murphy).  I get it though.  I think if I encountered this Goliath while beach combing I would be fixated.  25 feet long! You could make an airplane out of that thing!

Some research led to a few interesting revelations.  Most beachings involve the toothed whales (Sperm, Pilot, etc) rather than their baleen relatives.  Its rare that a live whale washes up onshore though it did happen recently in the Hamptons.  Because thousands of sea creatures die each year, factors like winds and tides push floating carcasses ashore for us to enjoy.  More likely than this though is a phenomenon called Whale Fall which is basically a term for when an ecosystem builds up in a whale's carcass that has died in the open ocean (rather than shallow waters).  The whale's body will fall to the ocean floor and there many creatures will take up residence within the walls of its blubber.  One whale's carcass can provide sustenance up to several decades for the critters of the deep to feast upon! 

There are mass beachings too.  These are attributed to many factors including pods following the distress calls of their beached buddies and shallow water tidal mix-ups that become unnavigable.  Either way, it looks like this:

 Imagine the smell! 

According to Wikipedia, nearly 2,000 ocean animals beach themselves every year.  How come we never see a Great White washed up on Cannon Beach?  Are sharks not beachers?  Do whales have a unique physical make-up that makes them more likely to beach than other sea creatures?  Last summer while walking the sands of Fort Tilden, I nearly stepped on a dying ray.  Its gills were foamy, eyes glazed and it lay there in a desperate, fishy stupor; drying out, waiting for the sun to kill it.  I knew if I threw it back, it would still die anyway, not to mention it was a mess.  There was no way I was going to touch it.  I sat there and stared at it as it lay in its sandy hospice and thought how about how a sea creature's beaching must be equivalent to a human's drowning. Even if its a crab, a ray or a whale - when we watch, is it like craining your neck at a car accident?   Is it okay to stare because they aren't some body's mother?  Are mass beachings like Heaven's Gate?  I dunno.  Something about the Jones Beach whale, to me at least, is a 25-foot reminder of my own mortality.  Lets bury that thing.  Stat.