A gray whale that washed ashore at Torrey Pines Beach Thursday is attracting a lot of attention.
State Park agents managed to move the carcass close to the public parking lot, but salvage crews won't pick it up until Friday morning.
The San Diego Museum of Natural History planned to study the whale before it's carried away, and beachgoers gathered as long as they could stand it to take photographs.
Hikers found their daily exercise far more memorable as well.
Torrey Pines beach goers hold their noses to decomposing gray whale found #NBC7 pic.twitter.com/vZAsCd2AUQ
— Dave Summers (@DaveSummersNBC7) March 24, 2016
“It shocked me when I looked I thought ‘oh my gosh, I have never seen this before,’” Hiker April Russano said.
The one-year-old gray whale found dead on the beach, now waits where Torrey Pines Trail and state beach parking meet for a salvage crew.
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“That stuff is coming out of it so that of course is going to stink, so it really smells bad,” visitor Madison Erikson said.
“It's disgustingly interesting because it's sad. I love animals, but it's kind of interesting, “hiker Julianne DeArmas said.
The whale washed ashore around 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning, 200 yards north of flat rock.
While the curious took photos, NOAH performed a necropsy, and Park Peace officers choreographed the assault on your senses – but necessary – removal process.
The young whale is 25 feet long, half the size of an adult gray.
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Investigators found propeller marks on the whale, but can't say for sure whether it was a boat motor that killed it.
“It's pretty sad when you see a dead whale like that. You like to see them when they are breathing and in water but they are definitely interesting,” Hiker Shelby Lee said.
The gray whale, once called ‘devilfish’ for the fight they gave those who hunted them, had its last battle for survival. It now serves science, but it won't stop fascinating the curious with cameras.
A salvage crew will pick up the remains Friday morning and bury the whale in a landfill.
Park officers said the Natural History Museum has already asked to recover the bones for study when the time comes.
