Wally, the Misfortunate, Misunderstood Whale, Bedevils Lifeguards

Remember Wally? Wally refuses to be forgotten. On July 2, authorities towed out to sea the carcass of Wally, a humpback whale that washed ashore at Dockweiler State Beach and created a smell and spectacle just before the holiday weekend.

On Sunday, poor Wally threatened to wash ashore down south in Newport Beach. Fresh on the heels of a shark attack that nearly killed a woman, lifeguards there wanted nothing to do with a decomposing whale and the sharks it attracts. So, they towed poor Wally back out to see before the whale could hit the beach.

And the tides brought Wally right back again.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Wally’s now about 5 miles off the coast and getting closer. Officials believe the 45-foot, 22-ton whale will arrive at the Newport Beach Pier unless lifeguards intervene and tow it out again.

It’s not a fun job.

Because of the sheer size of the carcass, lifeguards spent an entire day dragging it 14 miles out to sea Sunday.
"Just the size and the bloat and the smell was something," lifeguard Battalion Chief Mike Halphide told the LA Times.

Lifeguards tie a rope around the whale’s tail and dragged it out to see, but as time wears on, the job becomes even more precarious because the rope can cut through the rotting flesh.

To add insult to injury, Wally was mistakenly identified as a young male whale when researchers first tagged her last year. Dubbed Wally, it wasn’t until crews with bulldozers shoved the carcass back into the water at Dockweiler State Beach that they realized Wally was a girl, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration collected tissue samples from the carcass in hopes of discovering what killed Wally.

Photo courtesy of Newport Beach Lifeguards.