Officials are asking beachgoers to keep their distance from a 35- to 40-foot-long fin whale that washed ashore on a Torrance beach Saturday night and later died.
“Due to its size and location, the whale is expected to remain on the beach while rescuers develop plans to remove it,” the Los Angeles County lifeguard group said in a post on X. Animals and rescuers have Enough work space.
Lifeguards spotted the whale between Redondo Beach and Malaga Bay around 6 p.m. Saturday. The Marine Mammal Center and the National Fisheries Service later determined the whale was dead.
Marine mammal experts say the cause has not yet been determined, but fin whales are particularly prone to collisions with ships. Warming waters are also disrupting food supplies, while entanglement in commercial fishing lines is another danger whales face.
Fin whales are the second largest animal on earth after the blue whale. Like blue whales, fin whales are baleen, have two blowholes, and have no teeth but hundreds of rows of baleen plates made of keratin. These plates are lined up in a row and are used to filter food – mostly small fish and plankton – from the water.
