Death of Rarely Seen Bering Sea Whale May Remain a Mystery

The young whale that beached itself on the shore near Malibu died from a “systemic infection,” and a more specific cause might never be found, the head of a team of biologists who performed a preliminary necropsy reported 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.”

A systemic infection usually refers to a disease that infects the entire organism or bodily system.

Rescuers named the young female “BJ” after lifeguard Bob Janice, who spotted her Friday. Though the rare Stejneger beaked whale was less than 6 months old, she was already 9 feet 4 inches long and weighed 660 pounds. Full-grown specimens can be 15 feet long and weigh 2 tons.

These whales are seen mainly in the North Pacific. In fact, their common name is the Bering Sea beaked whale, Heyning said. The Bering Sea is separated from the Pacific only by the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and Siberia.

“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.”

BJ died late Saturday at the Friends of the Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, where she had been taken after beaching herself at Point Dume County Beach.

Volunteers fed BJ a formula of electrolytes and high-fat milk through a tube into her stomach, and technicians stayed with her around the clock but were unable to save her.

“We had to keep the animal swimming, so we had two people in the pool at all times,” said Jennifer Saitz, a board member at the center. “She also was on antibiotics, and though we offered her fish, she wouldn’t eat any on her own.”

The whale did show signs of improvement Saturday and for a time swam unassisted around a 16-foot pool. 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.”

By contrast, JJ, a young California gray whale rescued last year after being separated from its mother, was a healthy calf eventually released into the wild after being cared for at Sea World near San Diego.

Sea World often takes in large stray or sick marine animals, but it was hesitant to take the beaked whale, for fear it might be carrying a deadly virus that attacks dolphins.

Tom Reidarson, Sea World senior veterinarian, said the virus, which is related to canine distemper, was discovered in Atlantic Ocean harbor seals and then found three years ago in Pacific dolphins.

Whales taken in by Miami’s sea aquarium recently transmitted the disease to other creatures, he said, and several died.

“We had six stranded dolphins that confirmed the virus,” Reidarson said. “That made us much more cautious about taking in these animals. It’s a very dangerous virus.”

Though BJ did not seem emaciated, Heyning said, her chances for survival were slim because of the infection. Tissue samples taken during the necropsy and sent to a laboratory for examination could help shed light on the cause of death, he said.

Meanwhile, the whale’s remains will be added to the museum’s research collection.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about these animals, such as how many there are,” Heyning said. But “with the stuff we got, it will help piece together their biology and help contribute to our body of knowledge.”