Ellis Kaplan
Rescue crews are in a race against the clock after a whale beached itself this morning in Queens.
A resident reported the stranded sea mammal just before 9 a.m., a security staffer for the Breezy Cooperative told The Post.
The 50-foot-long whale is believed to be a female humpback whale. Point Breeze firefighters are using a water pump to keep the mammal alive.
"I haven't seen a whale like this in Breezy since I was a kid," said Joan Washington, who has been a resident of Breezy Point for the past thirty years.
"We started seeing wildlife like this again last summer. We see dolphins and sharks on the ocean side but not in the bay."
Ed Manley, a volunteer from Florida helping with Hurricane Sandy cleanup efforts, was the first person to get to the beach, he said.
"We got a call this morning from the police department, they said come down and help out," said Manley, who has been volunteering in Breezy Point for the past 77 days.
Manley worked nonstop for three hours in the cold, throwing buckets of water on the whale to help it survive.
"They couldn't get the pump going so I was using a bucket to keep her nice and wet."
Manley, who has worked to save whales in Florida, said the next step is to slowly pull the whale back into the water.
"Dead low tide for Jamaica Bay is 12:46 p.m.," said Dennis Dier, Chief of Security for Breezy Cooperative. "In another hour, the water will go out another five feet. The whale will be completely beached. He's up against a lot right now."
When a whale is beached, it runs the risk of being crushed by its own weight, as well as becoming dehydrated.
Wildlife rescue crews are racing to the scene.
