Even in death, Wally the whale can’t get enough of the California coastline.
Orange County sheriff’s deputies spent about three-and-a-half hours Wednesday towing the whale’s carcass back out to sea after it again drifted toward shore. Newport Beach lifeguards on Monday hauled the 45-foot humpback whale carcass back out to sea after it washed up off the coast of West Newport Beach for the second day in a row.
About 12:30 p.m. today, sheriff’s harbor patrol deputies received a call from a commercial vessel that the whale — known as Wally — was drifting back to shore in the Dana Point area, said Carrie Braun of Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s deputies went out on a fireboat and — using a tow lines already attached to the carcass — pulled it about 10 miles out to sea, Braun said. It took the crew about about three-and-a-half hours to haul the whale before returning to shore, she said.
The dead whale originally washed up onto Dockweiler State Beach in Los Angeles County earlier this month and was towed out to sea, but it drifted back into Newport Beach on Sunday, according to city spokeswoman Tara Finnigan.
Lifeguards towed the carcass about 12 miles off shore, but the currents carried it back to Newport, Finnigan said.
The trick is finding a location that lifeguards hope doesn’t lead the carcass to drift back into another jurisdiction or interfere with shipping lanes, Finnigan said.
The whale was originally named Wally by biologists who were tracking its movements along the coast, although they later realized it was female. They opted not to change the name.
–City News Service