Body of 30-foot sea creature washes up on California beach after storms. ‘Kind of sad’

A video shows a 30-foot-long dead gray whale washed up on Bolsa Chica State Beach in Southern California following a series of storms.

Bicyclist Eric Meyer told the Orange County Register that he first mistook the whale’s carcass for sea foam on Thursday, Feb. 8, near Huntington Beach.

“It’s kind of sad. I just went out on a whale trip and saw a gray whale,” Meyer told the publication. “It’s pretty sad to see a big creature dead.”

A video posted to Facebook by Don Koland shows seagulls flying around the decomposing body.

Gray whales are currently migrating north along the West Coast from Baja California to the Arctic, the Marine Mammal Center reported.

The whale found at Bolsa Chica State Beach probably washed ashore during the recent series of storms, Justin Viezbicke, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s California marine mammal stranding response coordinator, told the Orange County Register.

“With all the recent fronts we’ve had blow through, this is typically what happens,” he said. “Those things that are floating around, they do get pushed ashore.”

The whale may have been dead for several weeks before washing ashore, KABC reported.

Gray whales grow to about 49 feet and weigh up to 90,000 pounds, the NOAA said. They travel up to 14,000 miles round trip on their annual migrations.

They are filter feeders, normally feeding on invertebrates on or near the sea bottom. Experts say their lifespan is unknown, but one gray whale was estimated to be 75 to 80 years old at death.

Threats to gray whales include entanglement by fishing nets, ship strikes, ocean noise and climate change. They also are hunted by orcas, known as killer whales.

The NOAA has been studying elevated numbers of gray whale strandings along the West Coast. Nearly 350 strandings have been recorded in the U.S. since Jan. 1, 2019.