Distressed whale dies on beach in Dana Point

An ailing gray whale that was the focus of a days-long rescue effort in and around Dana Point Harbor beached itself and died Friday at Doheny State Beach.

The 30-ton marine mammal, nicknamed Lilly even though its sex wasn’t known, had moved sluggishly near the shore throughout the day. The whale washed up at San Juan Creek about 5 p.m., said Brian Stanley, a Dana Point Harbor Patrol dispatcher.

“It’s incredibly sad,” said Dave Anderson, who two days earlier had taken part in the effort to cut away 20 pounds of gill netting from the whale’s body. “Sad and unnecessary. We’ve got to find better ways of catching fish.”

Lilly showed up at Dana Point Harbor on Monday, appearing emaciated and moving slowly. On Wednesday, a rescue team made up of top marine biologists freed the distressed whale from the netting and other debris and it appeared to rally, swimming back to open ocean.

But the whale returned to harbor waters and by Friday had taken a turn for the worse. Biologists from SeaWorld in San Diego took tissue samples to determine the cause of death and the carcass was towed back out to sea, harbor patrol officials said.

“We will let nature take its course,” Stanley said. “It will decompose at sea and other animals can feed off it.”

Anderson said the whale appeared to have a deep gash on its back, which is where netting was found twisted around its body.

“I can’t say that I’m surprised” by the whale’s death, he said. “But I really did have hope that she would make it.”

catherine.saillant@latimes.com