LOCAL : Biologists Seeking Cause of Gray Whale’s Death

Biologists today are attempting to determine what caused the death of a California gray whale that washed ashore near the Seal Beach Pier over the weekend.

Blubber and muscle samples removed from the 7-ton mammal will be analyzed when biologists from the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles perform a necropsy today.

The 40-foot whale washed ashore Sunday night hours after boaters spotted its 35-foot carcass floating off the city pier.

Authorities have ruled out the possibility that the whale had been entangled in a gill net, the controversial fishing equipment that has been responsible for the deaths of other sea mammals.

Dr. John E. Heyning, assistant curator of mammals at the museum, supervised the removal of samples from the animal this morning.

“It literally could be just old age,” Heyning said. “If it was a gill net, you usually get netting on it or you get deep cuts on it. We’ve found no signs of those.”

Heyning said the cause of death will remain a mystery until the tests are conducted.

Museum employees cut the head off the giant carcass this morning and placed it on a flatbed truck bound for the museum’s laboratory in Los Angeles.

Heyning said Seal Beach officials will be responsible for burying the remains of the whale because it washed up on the city’s shores.

The dead whale was the second to wash ashore this year in Orange County. In February, an 18-foot gray whale washed ashore near Laguna Beach. Authorities said it was the victim of a gill net.

Gray whales migrate from the Bering Sea to Baja California and back to Alaskan waters between October and March.

“It’s not unusual for a whale to wash ashore dead,” Heyning said. “It happens a couple of times each year.”