Another Dead Whale Washes Up on O.C. Shore

The malnourished body of a 12-ton California gray whale washed ashore early Saturday at Sunset Beach, the third to die along the Orange County coast in a month.

Officials said they were trying to determine whether the deaths were related and expressed concern that so many whales have washed ashore in such a short time.

Usually, one or two dead whales are found along the local coast each year, said Joanette Willert, a ranger with county’s Harbors Beaches and Parks Department.

Willert coordinated the burial of the massive mammal Saturday afternoon on the sand near Anderson Street in Sunset Beach. A bulldozer dug a grave as a small crowd of beachgoers looked on.

“We don’t know why it died,” said Willert. “It could be El Nino, it could be pollution, it could be coincidence, it could be a number of things.”

Estimated to be a year old, the whale was about 3 tons lighter than what is average for its age, leading officials to believe it suffered from malnutrition. Authorities believe it is the same whale the U.S. Coast Guard spotted floating offshore a week ago. The Coast Guard towed it out to sea, Willert said, fearing it was a hazard to passing boats.

The discovery came four weeks after the bodies of two gray whales washed up in Sunset Beach and Seal Beach.

The tail of one was tangled in gill netting, a type of fishing gear banned in California. Both suffered from malnutrition, Willert said.

Typically, many whales swim north past Orange County during their yearly spring migration, traveling in pods of two or three.

Last year, 47 were found in California waters, up sharply from 30 in 1998, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. But authorities have said they have no reason to believe that a whale die-off is in progress.

Willert said the whales’ food supply could be affected by the warmer ocean waters caused by the El Nino weather condition or by pollution. But she stressed no one is sure of the reason for the deaths.

Beachgoers found the latest whale awash in the tide about 3 a.m. Officials arrived at daybreak, commencing an eight-hour operation to bury it.

Researchers from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History took the whale’s measurements and skin samples for genetic testing.

Whales are usually buried where they are found, to keep the carcass from floating back to sea.