After six hauls out to sea and crossing three counties, Wally washed up in Encinitas over the weekend and was hauled off to a landfill Monday morning.
The dead humpback whale — which washed up at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles County before the Fourth of July holiday — has been making its way down coast the past few weeks.
It threatened coming close to shore several times, prompting lifeguards up and down the coast to tie onto the whale with boats to tow it back out to sea. Newport lifeguards, the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol out of Dana Point, and San Clemente State Lifeguards were among local agencies that had to try to get Wally far from the shoreline.
It wasn’t an easy task because of its massive size and weight, the boats could only move a few knots to get it about 10 miles out to sea.
Wally was a media sensation even before she — experts after her death revealed Wally was a female — washed up dead. A YouTube video posted by Orange County photographer Mark Girardeau generated more than 1 million views.
“While it’s sad to see any animal get thrown away like a piece of trash, this particular whale was even more so since it put a smile on so many peoples faces with her playful interactions with whale watchers,” he said. “It wasn’t just another humpback, she had a name and people across the world enjoyed her videos on YouTube. In my opinion, the best outcome would have been for her to be given back to the ocean and all the other marine life to benefit from.”
According to a story on GrindTV, a crew attempted to move the remains of the 45-foot humpback whale on Sunday, but a forklift broke in the process.
By the time it washed up in Encinitas, the whale was badly decayed, with its intestines showing on the side of its corpse.
Encinitas lifeguards and a construction crew on Monday assisted in getting the remains into a dumpster to be trucked off to Miramar landfill in San Diego, lifeguards told GrindTV.
No word on how much it cost to haul Wally away, but a whale that washed up at Trestles last April and needed to be chopped up and taken to the landfill cost more than $30,000.
Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com
