LAPUSH — A whale that washed up on Second Beach in Olympic National Park may be a rare sight in the Northwest.
Scientists believe the massive mammal is a Baird’s beaked whale, which lives in the Pacific Ocean but is not often seen by humans.
“It would be considered a rare event to have a Baird’s beaked whale wash ashore in our region,” Brent Norberg, marine mammal coordinator for the Northwest Region of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries, said Thursday. “The occurrence is rare enough to be exciting for that alone.”
The whale, measuring between 30 and 35 feet, was discovered on the beach Tuesday by some people hiking in the area.
It probably washed ashore Monday and may have died much earlier than that, Norberg said.
He did not yet know how the animal died.
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