Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Whale washes-up on Sharp Park Beach (Mori Point)


NBC Bay Area/Riya Bhattaharjee, 4/15/15, "49-foot dead sperm whale washes up on Pacifica Beach." 
A crowd gathers in Pacifica, Calif. on April 15, 2015 to watch as scientists perform a necropsy on a dead sperm whale that washed ashore.
Marine biologists perform a necropsy, crowd gathers

"A 49-foot dead sperm whale washed up on a beach in Pacifica Tuesday, the Marine Mammal Center said. The center said the whale stranded at Mori Point on the south end of Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica.  

Image result for whale in Pacifica, CA pictures
Whale initially looked like the rocks
....  A team from the Marine Mammal Center assessed the animal along with biologists from the California Academy of Sciences after receiving an alert Tuesday, and confirmed it to be dead upon arrival. The whale was found in an emaciated state. Marine biologists believe the whale is an adult male. A team comprising of veterinarians, biologists and researchers will be performing a necropsy Wednesday to determine the whale's age, class and sex."   Read article, includes video of waives washing over the whale, 2:01 minutes. 

Related news, local - ABC 7 News/Lilian Kim, 4/15/15, "Dead whale washes ashore on Pacifica Beach." "There's a rock out there in low tide. It's exposed and I thought it was that rock and then I'm like, 'Gosh, it's shinier than that rock.' So, as I got closer I realized it was a whale," said Pacifica resident Priscilla Schlottman. Researchers with the Marine Mammal Center say it's an adult sperm whale believed to be about 49 feet long."Dead whale washes ashore on Pacifica Beach." .... "There was like 50 congregating in Monterey Bay and we were expecting to see them start showing up down here, but it's a shame this is the first one we've seen," said Jim Auler, Pacifica resident."

Related news, region - The Guardian, UK/California/Pacifica/Associated Press, 4/15/15. "Fifty-foot sperm whale washes up on shore south of San Francisco." 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."  

Beach Reference City of Pacifica, "Linda Mar Beach (Pacifica State Beach)".  Note: NBC article correction from "Mori Point on the south end of  Sharp Park Beach" to "Mori Point on the south end of Linda Mar Beach (Pacifica State Beach)".

Update:  San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate, 4/16/15, "Cause of death a 'mystery for whale found beached in Pacifica." Update:  Los Angeles Times, 4/21/15,"Corpse of beached sperm whale vandalized in Bay Area."

Note: photographs from KGO TV, ABC 7 News/Janet O, 4/15/15,"Scientists examine dead whale found in Pacifica." The Crowd photograph is by Wayne Freedman, the whale photographer is unidentified.  The public was/is welcome to submit related photographs to the article slideshow location. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

13 comments:

Casual Observer said...

This reminds me of the year 2000, when I lived near Poplar Beach, and there was a big dead whale there. It really stunk. I met this lady whose husband had left her. I tried to speak kind words to her, tell her that it was not the end of the world. Nonetheless, It was a miserable scene. Life, death, the eternal cycle of things. The native americans would have harvested what they could have from the dead whale. There was once an Indian settlement by Mussell Rock. Just saying....

Anonymous said...

Casual

Are you a Hippie? Or did you just smoke too much pot back then?

Anonymous said...

Why is it so hard for people in this country to accept old age, death and other pertinent facts of life?

mike bell said...

I remember a whale died of old age and stranded on Linda Mar Beach in 1957 or 1958, when I was a kid.
Man did it stink.
I believe it was cremated in place and buried in the sand.
Hope this old guy had a nice long life.
RIP

Anonymous said...

In Japan they would have ate the whale.

Sharon said...

Hopefully the big swells today and tomorrow dislodge and move him out to a better position for towing. Not sure if that's any kind of an option.

Anonymous said...

847 Yeah, you go embrace that dead whale in a day or two. Cuddle right up to that real pertinent fact of life.

Anonymous said...

422 your comment is dumb.
I agree with 847.
The faux-enviros who were interviewed on the televised newscast tried to characterize this as some sort of environmental tragedy with no facts whatsoever to back it up.
This is the same bullshit strategy they use to scare everyone into stopping all development in Pacifica.
It's entirely possible that it was just the whales time to die.
You know, the same fate that awaits every living thing on this planet.
Living things die.

Anonymous said...

559 Profound. Really. But you know, not everything is an enviro plot. Saying that a beached, dead whale stinks is a fact, not a lament. Just part of our natural world. Big hug!

Tom Clifford said...

Noooo I won't go

Anonymous said...

Not without a fight, Tom!

Anonymous said...

646

Fact: faux-enviros see ONE frog and proclaim "habitat".

Fact: faux-enviros see ONR frog and proclaim "endangered specie".

Fact: faux-enviros use this double sided argument to break the economic back of Pacifica.

Anonymous said...

If we had a real Chamber of Commerce they would have done a Whale Days sold tickets to come see the whale!

Instead we get the same old fap fap fap.