California Beachgoers Stunned by Appearance of Enormous Sea Creature After Storm

After many storms, a 30-foot-long dead gray whale washed up on Southern California’s Bolsa Chica State Beach. A video of the incident illustrates this.

On Thursday, February 8, cyclist Eric Meyer told the Orange County Register that he initially thought the whale’s carcass was sea foam in the vicinity of Huntington Beach.

It is somewhat depressing. Meyer told the newspaper, “I just went out on a whale trip and saw a gray whale.” “Seeing such a large animal dead is quite depressing.”

Don Koland shared a video of seagulls circling the decaying remains on Facebook. According to the Marine Mammal Center, gray whales travel north along the West Coast from Baja California to the Arctic.

The whale discovered at Bolsa Chica State Beach most likely washed ashore during the recent storms, according to Justin Viezbicke, the California marine mammal stranding response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who spoke with the Orange County Register.

“This is usually what happens with all the recent fronts we’ve had blow through,” he stated. The objects that are drifting around do eventually wash ashore.

According to KABC, the whale might have been dead for a few weeks before washing up on the coast.

According to the NOAA, gray whales can reach a height of 49 feet and a weight of 90,000 pounds. They migrate annually, covering distances of up to 14,000 kilometers round trip.

Being filter feeders, they often consume invertebrates that are found on or close to the sea floor. Although the longevity of gray whales is unclear, experts estimate that one lives between 75 and 80 years old.

Gray whales are at risk from ship strikes, entanglement in fishing nets, ocean noise, and climate change. Killer whales, sometimes referred to as orcas, hunt them down.

The increased number of gray whale strandings along the West Coast has been the subject of study by the NOAA. Since January 1, 2019, there have been about 350 reported strandings in the US.