\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA dead juvenile humpback whale washed ashore near Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, prompting research efforts and drawing attention from residents and tourists. The whale was first spotted floating in the water on Wednesday, leading the Pacific Grove Police Department to close Lover\u2019s Point Beach, located about a mile away from the marine station. Whale experts from UC Santa Cruz\u2019s Long Marine Lab are conducting tests on the whale to gather samples that could provide insights into marine mammal health in the area. \u201cOur team was able to successfully get a fecal sample, and that\u2019s one of the samples that we need to determine whether there was domoic acid in its body,\u201d a spokesperson from UCSC Long Marine Lab said. Currently, the cause of death for the juvenile whale remains unknown, but the samples collected may offer clues. Once testing is complete, the whale will be towed back into the ocean to allow nature to take its course. \u201cWe don\u2019t always tow whales. We really take into consideration the beach that the animal has landed on, whether it\u2019s kind of highly accessed by the public, whether there\u2019s any safety concerns,\u201d the spokesperson said. The whale, estimated to be two years old, has drawn significant attention from residents and tourists, many of whom have stopped by to take photos. \u201cThere was a couple of years ago, a beached whale at Asilomar. But there\u2019s a lot more decompose. This one\u2019s, like, fresh. It\u2019s brand new,\u201d said Chris Fenstermaker, another observer. Some visitors expressed surprise at the whale\u2019s size, mistaking it for an adult due to its large appearance. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look that big when you\u2019re just looking at it. And then when you see these people, they\u2019re not even the size of a fin,\u201d said Heather Cool. According to Colleen Talty, director of operations at Happywhale, the whale had been tagged and was seen twice in March. It may take 24 to 48 hours before the whale is towed back into the ocean, leaving the reopening of Lover\u2019s Point Beach uncertain for now.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPACIFIC GROVE, Calif. \u2014<\/strong> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n A dead juvenile humpback whale washed ashore near Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, prompting research efforts and drawing attention from residents and tourists. <\/p>\n The whale was first spotted floating in the water on Wednesday, leading the Pacific Grove Police Department to close Lover\u2019s Point Beach, located about a mile away from the marine station. <\/p>\n Whale experts from UC Santa Cruz\u2019s Long Marine Lab are conducting tests on the whale to gather samples that could provide insights into marine mammal health in the area. <\/p>\n \u201cOur team was able to successfully get a fecal sample, and that\u2019s one of the samples that we need to determine whether there was domoic acid in its body,\u201d a spokesperson from UCSC Long Marine Lab said. <\/p>\n Currently, the cause of death for the juvenile whale remains unknown, but the samples collected may offer clues. Once testing is complete, the whale will be towed back into the ocean to allow nature to take its course. <\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t always tow whales. We really take into consideration the beach that the animal has landed on, whether it\u2019s kind of highly accessed by the public, whether there\u2019s any safety concerns,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n The whale, estimated to be two years old, has drawn significant attention from residents and tourists, many of whom have stopped by to take photos. <\/p>\n \u201cThere was a couple of years ago, a beached whale at Asilomar. But there\u2019s a lot more decompose. This one\u2019s, like, fresh. It\u2019s brand new,\u201d said Chris Fenstermaker, another observer. <\/p>\n Some visitors expressed surprise at the whale\u2019s size, mistaking it for an adult due to its large appearance. <\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look that big when you\u2019re just looking at it. And then when you see these people, they\u2019re not even the size of a fin,\u201d said Heather Cool. <\/p>\n According to Colleen Talty, director of operations at Happywhale, the whale had been tagged and was seen twice in March. <\/p>\n It may take 24 to 48 hours before the whale is towed back into the ocean, leaving the reopening of Lover\u2019s Point Beach uncertain for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dead juvenile humpback whale washed ashore near Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, prompting research efforts and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":845505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[11286,345749,345752,345751,345753,6524,123772,345750,11449,83959,159,20226,27184,22074,67,132,68,31918,837,1628],"class_list":["post-845504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-attention","tag-dead-juvenile-humpback-whale","tag-hopkins-marine-station","tag-long-marine-lab","tag-lover","tag-operation","tag-pacific-grove","tag-point-beach","tag-resident","tag-sample","tag-science","tag-size","tag-spokesperson","tag-tourist","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-whale","tag-wildlife","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116696037861010633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}