Baby sperm whale beached on Torrey Pines beach
By City News Service
A baby sperm whale kept rescuers from Sea World busy into the early morning hours Monday after it came ashore at Torrey Pines State Beach, a video photographer said.
The square-faced gray-brown colored mammal turned up at around 9:30 Sunday night, the photographer said, near the San Diego La Jolla Underwater
Park. He said it rolled around in the rocky surf, scraping and scratching its skin and drawing blood.
Sea World mustered a crew of 20, including a veterinarian and curator, the photographer said. He noted the curator remarked it was the first baby sperm whale he had seen in his 25 years in San Diego. The photographer said the curator estimated the whale’s size at 18 feet and 3,000 pounds — about the
size of a full-sized truck.
The veterinarian drew blood from the baby whale and then gave it antibiotic injections, the photographer said. Then, at about 1 a.m., the Sea World crew pushed the whale one-quarter mile out to sea.
The photographer said the veterinarian told him the baby whale beached itself because of being lost or being sick. If sick, it could be back and more may be done to help him, the veterinarian said.
Authorities thought the whale was a male.
Related posts:
- Whale removed from Torrey Pines Beach
- Whale watchers head for Baja
- Gray whale washes up on beach in Torrey Pines
- Gray whale still in San Diego Bay
- Authorities hoping whale will find own way back to open waters
Short URL: http://www.delmartimes.net/?p=19637
Posted by Halie Johnson
on Dec 13, 2010. Filed under Del Mar.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
