Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : AT THE SCENE : Beach Becomes Last Stop for Gray Whale

While Dana Point celebrates its annual whale festival, residents of Huntington Beach got their own unexpected whale event last week.

A 25-foot gray whale washed ashore Tuesday--right in front of posh, surfside condominiums. And residents were not thrilled about their new, temporary neighbor: a female yearling that apparently had starved to death and lay on the beach with a bloated mouth and gashes in its side.

“Those people (in the Huntington Pacific condominiums) are not happy with a dead whale in their backyard. They would like it moved,” said Huntington Beach Marine Safety Capt. Bill Richardson.

Many came to gaze at the dead animal, some to take its picture.

“It’s so sad ‘cause it’s dead. Like it got caught. It came here and it was, like, helpless and it couldn’t get on its legs and walk back into the sea,” said Mahin Wyassini, 16, who with several friends had cut classes to see the whale.

But other people attacked the mammal.

“We got idiots out there, kicking it, hitting it with sticks . . . and taking the hunter-type picture, standing on its head,” said condominium security officer Gary Guimon.

“I’m surprised they aren’t cutting it up and taking it as souvenirs,” Guimon said. “It’s a little like kicking a dead child to me.”

On Wednesday, workers buried the whale in the sand between 11th and 12th streets.