A rare whale with a prominent saber-like tooth was washed ashore of the Venice Beach on Tuesday. Experts initially ruled out that the mammal may be a victim of stranding but its necropsy results released Friday opposes the idea.
The rare type of whale classified as a Stejneger’s beak-nosed whale was found ashore dead and almost on its decomposing stage. Its remains were brought to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museumfor examination.
Stejneger’s beak-nosed whales normally swim around the deep, cold waters of the northern Pacific Ocean and are hardly ever spotted close to the shores of California. The last sighting was 15 years ago.
Jim Dines, a Mammalogy Collections Manager who facilitated the necropsy, L.A Times that the whale displayed neither signs of trauma in and out of its body nor signs of any disease, though the whale has broken ribs, which most likely occurred after its death.
He also took organ tissue samples from the female to check for parasites or disease. Its head was sent out for a CT scan to test if she might have suffered injury from the U.S. Navy's use of under-surface sonar, to which beak-nosed whales are sensitive. The animal's DNA will also be examined to know more about its species.
"The only thing significant is the stomach was empty. It did have some nylon braiding but nothing that would cause a significant blockage," added Dines.
Marine specialists claim that the whale was already dead when they fetched it from the beach, however there were witnesses claiming that the whale was still alive when it has drifted ashore. However,
The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum will have the animal’s skeleton displayed and added to its more than 4,000 marine mammal skeleton collection, the second biggest repository in North America.
