She was one of the Big Apple’s hottest young rising stars — and she was tragically lost too soon.
The humpback that washed up dead in Long Beach this week has been identified as NYC0393, a playful and spirited cetacean who had become familiar to whale watchers last summer for her acrobatic displays, including some spectacular tail flips in the shadow of the city skyline.
“There were a few trips where it would just be tail throwing — when it throws its entire back body out of the water,” said Chris St. Lawrence of the south Brooklyn research center, Gotham Whale.
“We did have this whale super active on numerous occasions . . . It was doing that right in front of the Verrazano Bridge.”
Dead humpback whale washes up on Long Island beach, carcass buried as cops probe cause of death
Whale experts said that the 28-foot-long leviathan was likely killed in a horrific boat strike, as she was missing many of her internal organs and was covered with body trauma “consistent” with such a collision, according to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society .