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© Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily NewsA dead Minke whale was found on Coney Island beachin Brooklyn on Monday afternoon.
A partly decapitated Minke whale that washed up Monday on the Coney Island beachfront likely died after an unfortunate encounter with a ship's propeller, officials said.

The approximately 18-foot-long leviathan was found on the beach near the Boardwalk at Ocean Parkway around 2p.m., authorities said.

Kim Durham of the Riverhead Foundation, a group that studies and rescues marine mammals, performed a necropsy.

The adult female whale's body had been battered by propeller strikes.