[small whale] visits ny then dies

Why do whales do this sort of thing?

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.

They must be extraordinarily sensitive. I wish they wouldn't do it.