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.