Saturday, October 29, 2016

Juvenile Blue Whale that washed ashore, Daly City


Pacifica Patch/Renee Schiavone, Staff, 10/28/16. Bay City News Services contributed to this report. "Dead Blue Whale near Pacifica likely hit by ship, Marine Mammal Center Says."

A dead blue whale washed ashore at Thornton State Beach on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016 in Daly City, Calif. Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle
Juvenile Blue Whale washed ashore along
Daly City coastline Wednesday, 10/26/16.
Image result for juvenile Blue Whale
Endangered Blue Whales
Image result for juvenile Blue Whale"DALY CITY, CA – A dead blue whale that washed ashore in the Daly City area this week likely collided with a large boat, causing blunt force trauma, officials withe Marine Mammal Center said Friday.

The large animal, which measures 65-feet long, was found near Daisaku Ikeda Canyon at Westmoor Beach in Daly City on Wednesday. Scientists responded to the location and began performing a necropsy on Thursday. ----   Its carcass will be left in the area to decompose. ....  Blue whales are the largest animal on earth and an endangered species."   Read article.

Reference.  World Animal Foundation, pdf pages 4, "Blue Whale Fact Sheet," page 1.  YouTube, 32 seconds, "Juvenile Blue Whale Dives."

Related articles.  CBS SF Bay Area, 10/27/16, "Biologists Find Fractures In Skull Of Blue Whale That Washed Ashore in Daly City."... "A dozen scientists conducting a necropsy Thursday on a blue whale carcass that washed ashore Wednesday coastside in Daly City found multiple skull fractures, which they say are indicative of blunt force trauma, but a definitive cause of death has not yet been determined.  The specimen has been confirmed as a sub-adult male blue whale measuring roughly 65 feet. The carcass was significantly degraded, according to the Marine Mammal Center..... The blue whale, a species that is endangered, was spotted at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday roughly a quarter-mile from the Daly City shoreline. It drifted closer to shore as the day went on, Marine Mammal Center spokesman Giancarlo Rulli said."   NBC Bay Area/Peninsula/Staff, 10/26/16, "Dead Blue Whale washes ashore at Thornton Beach in Daly City." ....  "The Marine Mammal Center said it has been monitoring the location of the whale and was waiting for it to wash ashore." Video of the Whale in the surf, 4:34 minutes.   SF Gate/Kimberly Veklerov, 10/26/16, "Dead blue whale washes ashore at Daly City beach." .... "The last dead blue whale to wash ashore in the region was in 2010 at the Bean Hollow State Beach in San Mateo County. That female whale, which had been carrying a fetus, died of blunt force trauma after being hit by a ship, the veterinarians determined." 

Note photographs.  Whale that washed ashore in along Daly City coastline (Thornton State Beach) by Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle from the related SF Gate article (above).  Blue Whale mother and young calf from Animal Planet, found on Cetaceans.   Blue Whale alone by Mike Johnson from Aquarium of the Pacific.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

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