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Experts probe for clues on whale’s death near shipping lanes at Port of Long Beach

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A dead whale floated into the Port of Long Beach Wednesday evening, triggering a debate on what to do with the corpse until wildlife officials asked that it be kept nearby for future study, officials said.

The 20- to 30-foot whale was found before 7 p.m. near a container ship and Pier T, which is near a channel leading into the inner harbor, said Jake Heflin, a Long Beach Fire Department spokesman.

A fire boat crew was going to tow the whale beyond the breakwater but instead ended up tying it to a pier at the request of the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Heflin said.

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Those agencies will work to determine the whale’s cause of death, he said.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a member of NOAA’s stranding team, arrived at the pier Thursday morning and said it appeared to be a fin whale but that she and other experts had to take a closer look to be sure.

If possible, they were going to inspect its dorsal fins to see if they recognize it as a fin whale and if so, if it was one they’ve encountered before. They would take tissue samples to get a snapshot of its diet and what pollutants it may have been exposed to in its travels. And they’ll try to determine whether its death was caused by a collision with a passing ship, she said.

The area where the whale was discovered doubles as a feeding ground and also a shipping lane for one of the West Coast’s busiest harbors.

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The whale could still be seen floating by the pier Thursday morning.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @JosephSerna


UPDATES:

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2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from a marine life expert.

This article was originally published at 7 a.m.

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