Terrain prevents scientists from reaching dead whale near Shelter Cove

A dead whale washed ashore at a beach in Pacifica Tuesday morning, but Marine Mammal Center scientists cannot study it until it moves somewhere more accessible, a center spokesman said.

Center spokesman Giancarlo Rulli said the carcass was first reported in the surfline at Linda Mar Beach. Pacifica police Capt. Chris Clements had said that police were notified around 9:30 a.m. that the whale was located at the adjacent Shelter Cove.

Rulli said scientists at the Marin Headlands-based center can’t perform a necropsy on the whale until the carcass drifts to a safer spot or high tide dislodges it.

The species, age, gender, and cause of death of the whale remains undetermined, according to Rulli.