Crews at Dockweiler State Beach near Los Angeles International Airport worked throughout the day Friday to remove a 45-foot-long dead female humpback whale that washed ashore late Thursday.
The adult whale, at first thought to be a male, was finally towed out to sea during high tide at 7:40 p.m. Her cause of death is still being investigated, as there were no visible signs of trauma.
An afternoon attempt to bulldoze the body far enough into the surf to tow out to sea failed. Los Angeles County lifeguard and Beaches and Harbors workers had to wait for the tide to come in to help pull her out.
On the beach, researchers examined her and took samples to learn more about her life and death.
The humpback, weighing roughly 35 to 40 tons, had healed “entanglement scars” from becoming caught in fishing line earlier in its life, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, research associate for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. “We did take measurements, tissue samples, blubber samples, muscle samples, fecal samples,” she said. “She had no obvious wounds or cuts and was very, very fresh. Perhaps she died early (Thursday).”
Schulman-Janiger said the whale appeared to be about 15 years old and was regularly spotted last summer from Dana Point to Newport Beach, where she was likely following a food source. Local researchers documented those sightings on happywhale.com. Citizen scientists who identified her by fluke prints nicknamed her “Wally.”
The whale was identified Friday morning as a female but, when the carcass bloated with decomposition, a protrusion emerged near the genital slit and researchers decided the whale was male. After further examination, they determined it was a female whose internal organs had pushed out.
Onlookers at the beach were told to stay 200 feet from the animal, whose rorqual pleats were visible as it laid on its back. The hundreds of thin throat grooves are designed to expand to scoop up huge gulps of shrimp-like krill and small fish. Humpbacks can eat more than a ton of food a day, according to the American Cetacean Society.
This is the second dead humpback to come ashore near Los Angeles in the past two weeks. The first, a female possibly struck by a ship, was brought into the Port of Los Angeles on the bow of a ship on June 14. National Marine Fisheries Service officials are still investigating the cause of that 48-foot whale’s death.
