A necropsy was performed Monday on a female juvenile humpback that was stranded on a sandbar in Moriches Bay last week.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a team of Long Island marine biologists dissected and took samples of the 15-ton whale, looking for clues as to why it ended up where it did.
NOAA says preliminary results should be available by the end of the week, but a full report may take four weeks to complete after blood and tissue samples are examined in a lab.
The whale was expected to be buried after the necropsy.
An online petition is calling for changes to be made to the response effort when situations such as a whale stranding occur.