A large sperm whale that washed up on a beach in Venice, Florida over the weekend has died, police said.
On Sunday morning, the Venice Police Department announced that the local Service Club Park beach would be closed after a 44-foot-long male manta ray beached itself on a sandbar, according to the City of Venice.
Several groups — including Venice police, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) — worked together to help the male whale. According to the FWC, the whale was sick and the commission took samples to further investigate its health, according to local affiliate station FOX 35.
A sperm whale on the beach in Venice. Florida
Venice Police Department/ Facebook
On Sunday afternoon, Venice police shared another update on their Facebook page, writing that the water conditions were too difficult for rescuers to approach and sedate the whale. The city advised residents and boaters to stay away from the area and announced the beach will be closed while authorities try to help the whale.
“The whale is estimated to be about 50 feet tall and 50,000-70,000 pounds. Another assessment will be made at low tide, a little after 7 o’clock tonight,” the police wrote on Sunday. “Unfortunately, it looks like this is likely to be a recovery effort as nature takes its course.”
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Stranded sperm whale in Venice, Fla.
Venice Police Department/ Facebook
The fact that the whale even came close to the beach was a negative sign for some experts – according to National Geographic, sperm whales are known to dive more than 3,000 feet in search of squid to eat and generally live deep in the sea. The size of this whale was average for a sperm whale, as massive mammals typically weigh between 35 and 45 tons and measure 49 to 59 feet in length.
According to another local station, FOX 13, the whale swam even closer to shore early Monday morning, and officials planned to euthanize the animal if it survived the night.
On Monday morning, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine mammal division chief Laura Engleby announced during a news conference that the whale had died overnight.
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“It kind of takes a village, really, for an effort like this,” Engleby told reporters at a beach conference, noting that an average of about two humpback whales strand a year in the Gulf and Atlantic Ocean. “It’s a rare event and obviously this whale wasn’t, you know, feeling well and it wasn’t very good for him to be this close to shore and in this condition.”
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“She looks thin,” she said. “So we’re definitely going to do as much research as we can to understand what contributed to his death and then, at the same time, learn as much as we can about right whales.”
Wildlife agencies plan to try to tie a rope to the whale’s tail to bring it ashore for an autopsy, Engleby added.
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Source: HIS Education