Another dead whale has washed ashore in Pacifica, not far from where a dead sperm whale was found about three weeks ago.
The humpback whale is in the surf and California Academy of Sciences researchers are attempting to determine whether a necropsy will be possible, according to Laura Sherr with the Marine Mammal Center.
The previous whale, a 48-foot male sperm whale, was discovered at Mori Point in Pacifica on April 14 and was already dead by the time scientists arrived to examine it, Sherr said.
A necropsy was unable to determine a cause of death for that whale, in part because it had deteriorated by the time scientists studied it.
While there had been speculation that it was killed by a ship strike, biologists found no broken bones and insufficient hemorrhaging in the muscles to support that theory.
The whale was emaciated, but it had squid beaks in its stomach, indicating that it had been eating, according to the Marine Mammal Center.
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