Whale Found Dead Near Site of Mass Beachings

QUINCY, Mass. — A 12-foot pilot whale was found dead Thursday on a rocky shore here, and an official said it might have been from the same herd as the 76 whales that died in two mass strandings on Cape Cod.

Greg Early, assistant curator of the New England Aquarium in Boston, said there was no way to tell if the 1,200-pound male was one of about 25 whales pushed back into the water during the first of the two beachings earlier this month. Fourteen of 16 dead whales examined from the cape beachings were infected with a flu virus.