A Stejneger's Beaked Whale washed ashore in Venice Beach, California.
For the second time this week, Southern California has seen a rare sea beast washed ashore, far from home waters.
This time, it's a
saber-toothed whale, better known to live in deep Alaskan waters than in
the warm surf of tourist-choked Venice Beach in Los Angeles where it
stranded Wednesday.
In an extraordinary way
even for scientists, the carcass of the nearly 15-foot and 2,000-pound
whale was intact -- except for a couple of fresh bite marks from sharks.
The whale, a female, apparently was barely alive when it came ashore --
a highly unusual sight because beached whales are often badly
decomposed or badly eaten by marine life, a local biologist said.
"It was really humbling
and sad to see such a majestic creature stranded this way," said Heather
Doyle, director of the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. She rushed down the
beach on her bicycle to witness the rarely-seen animal after staff
naturalist Brittany Corona happened upon a crowd surrounding the whale
on the sand.
Such a sighting of the whale up close in California "is a once in a lifetime opportunity," she added.
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