But I always remember it's New York

Whale Dies After a Short Visit to New York

A 12-foot-long whale that had surfaced and frolicked near the mouth of the Gowanus Canal on Tuesday, delighting and surprising even the most hardened of Brooklyn residents, died yesterday, officials said.

The whale — a minke, the second-smallest whale species — had been thought to be in good health because it was not surfacing erratically. Like other ocean mammals, whales must surface to breathe.

Shortly before 5 p.m., during low tide, it was seen churning in the water. Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said, “It swam by a bulkhead” near the canal’s mouth, “thrashed a little, and then expired.” Neither its age nor sex were known.

Earlier in the day, biologists speculated that the whale might have followed krill or another food source into the Gowanus Canal, whose polluted waters have cleared somewhat in recent years.

Kim Durham, the rescue program director for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, which arranges for rescues of dolphins and other sea animals, said the dying whale apparently beached itself after hitting rocks near a Hess oil refinery.