This photograph provided by Heal the Bay shows Heather Doyle, director of the Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, pointing to shark bites found on a beached Stejneger’s Beaked Whale that washed ashore today in the Venice Beach. Heal the Bay plans to study the whale.
A 15-foot-long rare whale with “saber-like” teeth that normally lives in frigid subarctic waters washed up on Venice Beach last night. From the LA Times:
The female Stejneger’s beaked whale — also known as the Saber-toothed whale — was loaded onto the bed of a truck early Wednesday and taken for an autopsy that will give scientists a rare glimpse into the lives of the elusive mammals. So rare, in fact, it sent Nick Fash, an education specialist for Heal the Bay, pedaling his bike down to the site “as fast as I could.” “We were very lucky,” said Fash, who works at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. “These whales are incredibly rare and almost never seen in the wild.”