{"id":302833,"date":"2026-02-21T12:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/302833\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:24:10","slug":"dead-whale-in-newport-beach-disappeared-later-found-and-towed-out-to-sea-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/302833\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead whale in Newport Beach disappeared, later found and towed out to sea \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nearly 30-foot deceased whale that washed up<\/a> in Newport Beach<\/a> this week disappeared overnight, likely carried back out to sea by strong surf, but was later found wedged on rocks further south in Corona del Mar.<\/p>\n

The subadult humpback whale showed up on the shore near 11th Street, between the Balboa and Newport piers on Wednesday, Feb. 18.<\/p>\n

Authorities were figuring out whether to tow it back out to sea or chop it up and take it to a landfill to dispose of the carcass. Taking it back to sea had its challenges with a storm that showed up on Thursday, with strong swells and winds that would make it difficult for the salvage tow boat to get near the shoreline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we showed up this morning, there was no whale there,\u201d said Marine Safety Battalion Chief Mike Ure. \u201cWe were looking around up and down the beach, toward the Wedge. We got a call from a citizen saying, \u2018I think there\u2019s a whale down here,\u2019 in Corona del Mar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whale was wedged in rocks between Big Corona and Little Corona, behind a big row of rocks sticking out in the ocean.<\/p>\n

The boat initially scheduled to tow the whale out was still on standby. When it arrived, a lifeguard jumped in the water to hook a harness up to the whale, which was pulled out to sea.<\/p>\n

The whale was being pulled 20 miles offshore.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will sink naturally in the weather and waves out there,\u201d Ure said. \u201cIt\u2019s starting to lose its gases that help it inflate and float. They usually just sink offshore; that\u2019s what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Whale Response Team from Pacific Marine Mammal Center, alongside Newport Beach lifeguards and public works, dispatched before it was gone to take samples and measurements to gather \u201cimportant life history data and biological samples,\u201d said a release from the mammal center.<\/p>\n

The whale measured approximately 29.5 feet in length and is estimated to have weighed around 23,000 pounds, or more than 11 tons.<\/p>\n

A subadult humpback is comparable to a teenager in human years, PMMC said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumpback whales are a sentinel species,\u201d said Dr. Alissa Deming, veterinarian and vice president of Conservation Medicine and Science at PMMC. \u201cEvery stranding represents both a loss and an opportunity \u2014 a unique chance to better understand the threats these animals face and how we can protect the population as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday evening, necropsy teams from the PMMC and the Ocean Animal Response and Research Alliance collected additional samples, including skin, blubber baleen, and bodily fluids for laboratory analysis, also confirming the whale was a female.<\/p>\n

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center also deployed a thermography drone to document the whale and assess for visible injuries.<\/p>\n

However, a rough surf and a rising tide made it unsafe to conduct a full necropsy at that time, the release said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile marine mammal strandings are always difficult to witness, they offer rare and valuable opportunities for scientific investigation. A thorough examination can help determine the cause of death and provide insight into the overall health of whale populations along the Southern California coast,\u201d the PMMC announcement said. \u201cThe region has experienced an increase in whale strandings in recent years, coinciding with intensified human activity and changing ocean conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ocean Animal Response and Research Alliance had also planned to attach a satellite tag to the whale, allowing researchers to track its movement offshore and gather additional data on post-stranding drift patterns and ocean currents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a powerful example of what collaboration within the ocean community can accomplish. The samples and documentation collected will provide greater insight into this whale\u2019s untimely death and contribute valuable scientific data to ongoing regional research,\u201d Keith A. Matassa, chief executive of OARRA, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nearly 30-foot deceased whale that washed up in Newport Beach this week disappeared overnight, likely carried back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[9755,4670,85,46,224,12865,43340,141,386],"class_list":["post-302833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-beaches","tag-california","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-local-news","tag-newport-beach","tag-orange-county","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}