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SAN DIEGO — A crowd of hundreds quickly formed as word spread of a whale that had washed ashore on Pacific Beach early Sunday morning.
“We thought it was a tarp from out in the water, but eventually we realized it was a whale and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said surfer Nick Hennis.
“I’ve lived here for 7 years, and I’ve never seen a whale on the beach before,” said surfer Ben Pallas.
At around 8 a.m. Sunday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it received calls regarding the beached whale. “We did an examination of the whale externally to look for signs of human interaction,” said research biologist, Kerri Danil with NOAA.
The agency coordinated with San Diego Lifeguards to take a look at the whale on scene, which was dead upon their arrival.
“What we can say is that it does not look like this animal died due to humans,” explained Danil. “We did see signs or evidence of perhaps scavenging from sharks, there were some rake marks in it, but nothing that would have killed this animal.”
Danil says it was a young female 52-foot fin whale. These whales grow up to 80 feet long. They are the second largest whale species in the world next to a blue whale.
On Sunday, heavy construction trucks tried, several times, for hours to roll the whale to the water’s edge. Once that was successful, lifeguards tied ropes around its tail to tow it offshore.
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