The carcass of a gray whale was found in the Bolsa Chica tidal inlet on Thursday, Feb. 8, with authorities on site to investigate the death of the marine mammal.
Huntington Beach resident Eric Meyer was riding his bike near Seapoint Avenue in Huntington Beach when he spotted what looked like foam from the waves, he said, but as he got closer it was a 30-foot, decomposing gray whale.
Gray whales are on their annual migration, which spans from Alaska to Mexico and passes Southern California along the way – it’s the longest migration of any mammal on Earth.
“It’s kind of sad. I just went out on a whale trip and saw a gray whale,” he said. ‘It’s pretty sad to see a big creature dead.”
It is likely the whale found in Huntington Beach was washed ashore by the recent storms, said Justin Viezbicke, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s California marine mammal stranding response coordinator.
“With all the recent fronts we’ve had blow through, this is typically what happens,” he said. “Those things that are floating around, they do get pushed ashore.”
Wounds on the animal could have been from sharks after the whale died, but “with a carcass floating around the ocean, that’s not surprising to see at all.”
Researchers with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center were taking samples for a necropsy Thursday, while lifeguards were assessing whether to tow the whale out to sea, bury it or have it taken to a landfill, Viezbicke said.
There’s been either two or three dead whales in recent weeks off Southern California, according to Viezbicke. It’s unknown if this one that washed up is the same as one recently found and towed out to sea in San Diego.
“My initial feeling is it is a new one, but we have to double and triple check to make sure we’re not mistaking the counting,” he said. “We want to make sure we have accurate counts and numbers. Sometimes, it’s hard to match the whales after weeks floating at sea and…
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