A whale-sized tragedy has washed up on a SoCal beach.
Beachgoers spotted the body of a gnarly, rotting 10-ton humpback whale lying onNewport BeachWednesday.
A video taken at the picturesque Orange County beach shows waves slapping the dark-colored 30-foot marine mammal.
The videographer, Tim Burnham, said he heard thewhale washed upoutside his house and decided to check it out.
“It was super bloated and looked like it hadn’t been deceased for that long,” he told The Post. “I actually brought my drone out to see if there were any sharks circling but it was too far up on the beach.”
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The whale’s cause of death is unknown, though a necropsy will be performed on the animal,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationspokesman Michael Milsteintold The OC Register.
Burnham worried that the decomposing whale, which he said did not smell, would attract sharks.
“I’m hoping they get the whale out asap,” he said. “Once the whale oils start leaking from the decomposition, the sharks will be coming in. We swim out there quite frequently.”
He said a professional with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center who was there to take samples said that the whale was around a year old.Humpback whales don’t reach sexual maturityuntil they’re around five to 10 years old, meaning the whale was considered very young.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
