A dead whale was found floating in the water near Torrey Pines State Beach on Tuesday evening, the second deceased cetacean to appear off San Diego’s shores in two weeks.
A civilian first spotted the whale and notified Del Mar lifeguards about the discovery at about 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Shortly after, California State Parks was alerted and that agency has been working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the city of San Diego to safely remove and learn more information about the dead whale.
NOAA is investigating to incident to confirm the whale’s species and its cause of death. No other details about the incident were immediately available.
Just last week on April 27, another whale was found floating about 400 yards off the coast of San Elijo State Beach in Encinitas. Lifeguards and personnel from California State Parks towed that whale carcass out to sea, the city of Encinitas said.
For that whale, officials advised beachgoers to exercise caution before getting into the water for several days because at least one shark was spotted following the whale’s carcass as it was being towed.