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Female blue whale that officials believe was struck by a ship, washed ashore on the Northern California coast Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Larry Wagner)
A blue whale, the world's largest mammal, was found washed ashore near Fort Bragg this week. The whale, a female, was spotted near Fort Bragg in Mendocino County on Monday night a few "hours after an ocean survey vessel reported hitting a whale a few miles away," reports AP.
The 70-foot whale was found dead. She had large gashes on her body, some of them measuring 8 feet long.
This makes the second dead blue whale discovered along the California Coast in two weeks. NOAA wildlife biologist Joe Cordaro goes on to tell AP that while it's rare for blue whales to wash ashore, last week another blue whale turned up in Monterey County. That whale was also died as a result of being hit by a large ship.
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George and Gracie!
Sir! There be whales here!
i had no idea whales got hit by ships like that. manatees, yes, but i always thought whales, although they're huge, could easily get out of the way of a boat. especially a large boat.
Jeff D
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Many large ships travel too fast for whales to avoid them. If ships would slow down it would be easier for whales to get out of the way. Two other blue whales may have been killed in the Pacific by ships this week - one near SLO (http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/breaking_news/story/883034.html) and one in Baja (http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=345886&CategoryId=14091).
*pours malt liquor on the ground*
http://www.laweekly.com/2007-09-27/news/blue-whale-requiem/2
Wow! That is one big mammal. Sad to see.
ocean survey? well they can count one less whale out there. don't they have sonar or somedamnthing to avoid hitting whales
We just need to call in the demo team that fixed a similar problem on the Oregon coast some years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgThvB_IDQ&feature=player_embedded
Man that is going to need a lot of dynamite
does anyone know the exact location where the whale is in Fort Bragg? like coast name?
My husband and I happened to be in Fort Bragg visiting when this occured. Apparently she washed ashore just south of the Mendo Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg. We tried to go take a look but there was no public access. We were shocked because we were just talking about the blue whales before this thinking they were all but exstinct. We were very saddened aswell especially since it was a research vessel, an org. that should be keeping them alive!! And extra worse is that last week one was washed ashore on the Monterey coast.
I was part of the crew that helped try to remove the whale. It is just by the botanical gardens, actually in a small cove directly next to a few houses (poor people, it smells terrible!) Blue whales have no sonar to let them know if anything is in the area above them before they surface. The research vessel also had no sonar capabilities to warn of a whale in the area. The vessel was doing bathymetry (sp?) surveys for the MPA. The body is in the process of being dismembered and the skeleton will be buried for a few years to clean the bones and then given to the city of fort bragg. Though it is sad that the animal died it has been an incredible learning experience for zoology students like myself and we are all greatful that we had the opportunity to learn about these amazing animals. As far as we could tell the female was not lactating, so hopefully we will not find a stranded young whale anytime soon.