Baby whale tragedy: Why did it die on shores of Laguna Beach?

Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are awaiting necropsy results to determine why a gray whale thought to be less than one week old washed ashore dead in Laguna Beach.

The center was alerted about 7 a.m. Monday about the whale, which had washed ashore on the north end of Main Beach in downtown Laguna Beach, according to the facility’s Krysta Higuchi.

Laguna Beach public works, animal control, marine safety and the center’s employees managed to load the thousand-pound whale, which still had its umbilical cord attached, aboard a truck to be taken to the National History Museum of Los Angeles, where Jim Dines was expected to perform a necropsy, Higuchi said. It was unclear when that would be done, she added.

–City News Service