Bad weather is stalling the removal of a dead humpback whale on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. And it’s attracting a curious crowd.
KNX News’ Emily Valdez reported the whale is about 30 feet long and very bloated. Biologists said it’s a teenage whale. They took samples to try to figure out how it died, but they’re still not sure.
“It's always interesting to see nature up close like that and seeing it dead, and that's always just interesting,” Mike, a Newport Beach local, said.
He said they get dead whales in the area every so often.
Biologists noted the most common causes are boat strikes or entanglements. They don’t see any signs of that yet, but the whale is on its side.
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Typically, when dead whales wash up in Los Angeles County, they chain the mammal up to a tugboat and drag it out past Catalina Island to an area designated for whale carcass disposal.
What happens to this particular whale is up to the city of Newport Beach and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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