Young Beaked Whale Died of General Infection

A young whale that beached itself died of a “systemic infection” and a more specific cause might never be found, the head of a team of biologists who performed the necropsy said Monday.

“It had a systemic infection and the liver . . . was pale in color and had irregular lumps,” said John Heyning, a whale biologist who is deputy director of research and collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. “What’s hard with an animal like this is, we don’t know too much about it.”

Rescuers named the young female BJ after lifeguard Bob Janice, who first noticed her Friday after she beached herself near Malibu.

Though the rare Stejneger beaked whale was less than 6 months old, it was already 9 feet, 4 inches long and weighed 660 pounds. Full-grown specimens can be 15 feet long and weigh 2 tons. They are mainly seen in the north Pacific. In fact, the common name for the whales is the Bering Sea beaked whale, Heyning said.

“This is only the second such whale ever recorded as found in Southern California,” he said. “The first was found in San Diego some years ago. This is an animal you’re more likely to see up in Alaska, and they come from a family of deep-diving offshore whales that we really don’t know much about because we don’t see them often.”

The animal died late Saturday at the Friends of the Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, where it had been taken after beaching itself at Point Dume County Beach.

The whale had shown signs of improvement Saturday and for a time swam unassisted around a 16-foot pool at the marine center. But she soon weakened, then died after an 8:30 p.m. feeding.

Usually when whales wash ashore, “they’re literally on their death bed,” Heyning said. “Unfortunately, the reality is that it probably would have died anywhere they would have taken it.”