The State - News from Jan. 13, 1987

A small whale washed up on Stinson Beach and died before a rescue team arrived, a spokeswoman for the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito said. The seven- to eight-foot-long whale was an immature pygmy sperm whale or dwarf sperm whale, Mary Jane Schramm said. An area resident spotted the whale, but did not call the center for several hours until it was too late to save it, she said. “It’s extremely rare to find those kinds of whales in these waters,” she said. “They are usually found in more tropical waters.” The California Academy of Sciences was expected to recover the carcass, estimated at 600 pounds, and try to determine the cause of death, Schramm said.