{"id":494686,"date":"2026-02-21T12:47:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/494686\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:47:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:47:25","slug":"dead-whale-washed-up-in-newport-beach-near-11th-street-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/494686\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead whale washed up in Newport Beach near 11th Street \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dead whale washed up on the sand in Newport Beach on Wednesday, with authorities assessing how the mammal died \u2014 and how to get it off of the popular beach.<\/p>\n

The 27-foot whale was first spotted offshore at about 1:45 p.m. near 28th Street and came onto shore at about 3 p.m. near 11th Street, between the Newport and Balboa piers and near Newport Elementary school, Lifeguard Chief Brian O\u2019Rourke said.<\/p>\n

The mammal is believed to be a humpback and about 20,000 pounds, or 10 tons, he said. Staff from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center were on scene, he said.<\/p>\n

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A dead sub-adult humpback whalefloats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

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A dead sub-adult humpback whalefloats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dead sub-adult humpback whalefloats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dead sub-adult humpback whalefloats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dead sub-adult humpback whale floats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dead whale washed up on the sand in Newport Beach on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Tim Burnham)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dead sub-adult humpback whalefloats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dead sub-adult humpback whalefloats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

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A dead sub-adult humpback whalefloats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

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The cause of death is unknown and the PMMC staff will do a preliminary assessment followed by a necropsy, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesman Michael Milstein. The whale is believed not to be an adult yet.<\/p>\n

Winds were too strong, and sea conditions on Wednesday were too dangerous for a tow vessel to come close to the shore to remove the massive animal, O\u2019Rourke said, adding they may have to wait until Friday due to more inclement weather that is expected.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe salvage boat can\u2019t even do it because the weather is still extreme out in the outer water, and it\u2019s too dangerous to tow,\u201d said O\u2019Rourke.<\/p>\n

Authorities will have to wait for the higher morning tides to see if they carry the animal back out to sea, or they may need to dispose of it by having pieces hauled offsite, as they did with a massive whale off Lower Trestles about a decade ago, O\u2019Rourke said.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on a plan to dispose of it,\u201d he said. \u201cFor it to just decay on the beach would cause a lot of different problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said people should stay clear of the whale, keeping a distance of at least 200 feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust please stay away from it right now until we can get the salvage disposal of the whale underway,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s massive; there could be some danger to the public, it\u2019s rolling away from the surfline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could cause damage, even crush them,\u201d he warned. \u201cThat\u2019s a possibility in a dangerous situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dead whale washed up on the sand in Newport Beach on Wednesday, with authorities assessing how the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,27929,485,44447,44,142813,128,39,338],"class_list":["post-494686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beaches","tag-california","tag-newport-beach","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-science","tag-top-stories","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}