Whale dies on Ocean City beach

A 12-foot whale beached itself and died on an Ocean City beach yesterday.

The short-finned pilot whale attracted crowds of sunbathers as it thrashed in the surf at the 35th Street beach.

The Atlantic City Press quoted Jay Pagel, senior field technician of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, as saying the pilot whale was an underweight juvenile.

Pagel transported the carcass to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, for a necropsy to determine the cause of death.

On Monday, a dead 27-foot female humpbackwhale washed up in Monmouth Beach, on the the North Jersey Shore. The whale apparently died of injuries suffered when it was hit by a ship.