A 13,000-pound gray whale washed up on a Malibu beach at Little Dume Beach this weekend.
Los Angeles County Fire Department lifeguards said they were notified of the whale Saturday afternoon.
The deceased whale is said to have been 25 feet long and its carcass is currently under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service. CBS News.
Video showed the whale tumbling through the waves onto the beach, which is located in the Point Dume State Marine Reserve, a protected area along the coastline.
“It’s just devastating to see a baby not make it,” said resident Suzy Forman Fox 11.
A 13,000-pound gray whale washed up on a Malibu beach at Little Dume Beach this weekend
Lifeguards urged the public to keep a safe distance from the whale until officials from the California Wildlife Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can determine what to do next.
Gray whales are known to migrate between December and January and again in February and March when they pass off the coast of Baja, California, near Mexico.
Forman, who said she has witnessed the migration before, said “it’s always exciting” to see mothers and their calves making the way from Mexico to Alaska.
Forman said she has also seen an alarming amount of dead whales coming to shore in recent decades.
“You know there’s a mother out there looking for her baby, probably…I can imagine that. So it’s very sad,” she said.
Since the tragic discovery, lifeguards have urged the public to maintain a safe distance from the whale until officials from the California Wildlife Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can determine what to do next.
It remains unsafe for officials to determine the whale’s cause of death since it washed up on the surf, CBS News reported.
Dylan Strickland, another resident who grew up near the beach, said the whale’s death is “part of the cycle of nature” but it is still “very sad.”
Strickland added that he hopes “the rest of the gray whales have successfully migrated.”
On May 10, a sperm whale was found dead after stranding on a sandbar along a Florida beach, as strong waves thwarted rescue efforts.
In recent decades, resident Suzy Forman said she has also seen an alarming amount of dead whales coming to shore.
On May 10, a sperm whale was found dead after stranding on a sandbar along a Florida beach, as strong waves thwarted rescue efforts. The red tint in the water is not blood, but ink, according to officials
The 50,000-pound male whale beached himself early that morning while thrashing about on the shallow sandbar in an attempt to break free.
The rough conditions made the animal difficult to reach and hampered rescue efforts, forcing the public to watch as the whale became increasingly distressed.
Marine biologists said it was a deep-diving whale and since it beached itself, it was probably not healthy. It died the next morning when officials dragged it to the beach and cut it open in an attempt to determine the cause of death.
Officials then issued a no-swimming advisory, saying the blood in the water could increase shark activity.
The 43-foot-long whale made its first appearance Monday morning as a crowd gathered on the beach.
The city of Venice announced that officials were aware of its presence and were drawing up a rescue plan.
But on Sunday afternoon, they said that “water conditions are too dangerous to approach the sperm whale in distress at Service Club Park by boat and attempt to administer a sedative to the animal.”
Rugged conditions made the animal difficult to reach and hampered rescue efforts, forcing members of the public to watch as the whale became increasingly distressed
They added: ‘The whale is estimated to be approximately 50 feet and 50,000 to 70,000 pounds.’
Over the next few hours, rescue services in boats tried but were unable to reach the whale.
Drone photos showed the whale surrounded by a dark liquid in the water that onlookers feared was blood. But the city said: “According to Mote Marine, the reddish liquid in one photo is ink and not blood.
‘Like squids, sperm whales can produce a dark, inky fluid that helps them escape from predators. They can also produce it when they are in need. It’s a pretty typical thing to see before a whale passes.”
On Sunday evening, the whale suffered from breathing difficulties and died around 3am the next day.
In the afternoon, officials dragged his body to the beach and cut it open to perform a necropsy. They said the mammal was underweight for a healthy adult whale.
