Beach goers ran into a sick 51-foot whale that washed up on a Los Angeles suburban shore Saturday night and quickly died, officials said.
The fin whale – the second largest whale species in the world – became stranded on the surf line at Torrance Beach in California around 6 p.m. where it reportedly appeared in distress.
First responders and animal specialists spent the next day undertaking a massive effort to perform a necropsy and then push the whale back into the water in front of throngs of curious onlookers.
“Stranding the fin whale here means the animal is compromised and sick. It took its last breath an hour ago,” John Warner of the Marine Mammal Care Center told KTLA on Saturday.
The whale, initially thought to be about 40 feet, had bumps on its skin that are unusual for that type of marine mammal, but a cause of death hasn’t been determined, officials reportedly said.
A veterinarian, Tammy Da Costa Gomez, told ABC 7 LA that there were no signs that whale, which was a juvenile, died from either an entanglement or ship strike.
Biologists worked to conduct a necropsy on the roughly five-ton sea creature Sunday morning.
“That way they can understand why it died and why it washed up on the beach…and if they are able to conduct a necropsy, it’s going to allow us to get it offshore,” Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Brian Murphy told KTLA on Sunday.
“Once we get it offshore, hopefully it will sink and feed the ecosystem at the bottom of the ocean.”
Two tractors pulled the carcass away from the surf line onto the beach so biologists could check it out as a crowd gathered in awe. An old fire hose wrapped the chains around the tail so it wouldn’t be cut, Murphy said.
“I think it’s pretty crazy,” one beach goer told KTLA. “It’s bizarre.”
“It’s sad,” another woman said. “When we heard about it early this morning … we thought we live close by, and we thought let’s come down and take a look and it is sad to see what happened. It’s part of life, these things happen.”
The whale was later removed around 2 p.m., though lifeguards warned visitors to still swim with caution.
