Dead humpback whale washes ashore at Dockweiler State Beach

Crews at Dockweiler State Beach worked throughout the day Friday to remove a 45-foot-long dead male humpback whale that washed ashore late Thursday.

The adult whale, nicknamed Wally by citizen scientists, was spotted 26 times off the coast of Orange County last summer, often alongside a female called Wilma, according to researchers who document sightings on happywhale.com. His cause of death is still being investigated, as he had no visible signs of trauma.

An afteoon attempt to bulldoze his body, which weighs roughly 35 to 40 tons, far enough into the surf to tow him out to sea failed. Los Angeles County lifeguard and Beaches and Harbors workers plaed to try again in the evening at high tide.

“Wally had healed entanglement scars” from becoming caught in fishing line earlier in his life, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, research associate for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. “We did take measurements, tissue samples, blubber samples, muscle samples, fecal samples,” she said. “He had no obvious wounds or cuts and was very, very fresh. Perhaps he died early (Thursday).”

Schulman-Janiger said he appeared to be about 15 years old.

Onlookers were told to stay 200 feet from the animal, whose rorqual pleats were visible as it laid on its back. The throat grooves are designed to expand to scoop up huge gulps of shrimp-like krill and small fish. Humpbacks can eat more than a ton of food a day, according to the American Cetacean Society.

This is the second dead humpback to come ashore near Los Angeles in the past two weeks. The first, a female possibly struck by a ship, was brought into the Port of Los Angeles on the bow of a ship on June 14. National Marine Fisheries Service officials are still investigating the cause of that 48-foot whale’s death.