Environment     

Sperm whale washed up on California shoreline

Shanghai Daily, April 17, 2015

• A monster 50-foot sperm whale found washed ashore in California is attracting dozens of camera-wielding tourists while experts decide what to do with the carcass, Daily Mail reported.

  The marine mammal was discovered bleeding from its head along the south end of Sharp Park State Beach in Pacifica on Tuesday. On Wednesday scientists and biologists sought to determine how the massive animal died, said the report.

  It is the seventeenth dead sperm whale to beach along the North Coast of California in over the 40 years, a spokeswoman for the Marine Mammal Center said.

  Officials say it's not immediately clear would be done with the decomposing carcass after the examination. In the meantime, people have been spotted photographing the animal and even stopping to touch it.

  In January, a rare pygmy sperm whale died after beaching itself in Point Reyes. Investigators said it had likely gotten sick and was too weak to swim.

  The San Francisco Chronicle reports the decomposing carcass, believed to be an emaciated adult male, washed up sometime Tuesday.

  Whales, in general, are at risk in the waters where they live.

  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has asked San Francisco Bay Area boaters to watch out for and steer clear of whales, which migrate into the San Francisco Bay Area in large numbers during the spring and summer.

  Gray whales are at a particularly high risk of collisions with ships and boats, as they often travel near shore and may even wander into the bay this time of year, the administration reports.

  Boaters should not approach within 100 yards of any whale, cut across a whale's path, make sudden speed or directional changes or get between a whale cow and her calf.

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