The carcass of a whale, presumably a gray whale, was found off the coast of Torrey Pines on Thursday.
Black’s Beach lifeguards spotted the cetacean floating in the water about 2 to 3 miles off Sumner Canyon, San Diego Fire-Rescue spokeswoman Monica Munoz said.
The 30-foot whale, possibly a gray whale, was in the early stages of decomposition and bloating, she said.
Lifeguards are working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to secure carcass samples to figure out a way to dispose of the whale.
This is the second dead whale found on the Southern California coast. A 40-foot gray whale washed ashore in Malibu on Sunday. The cause of death for that whale is pending a necropsy from biologists from the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute.
San Diego’s coast is a common migrating route for gray whales, where the marine mammals migrate to Baja California to give birth. They can be spotted swimming off the coast from March to May as they migrate back north.
