A beached fin whale estimated to be roughly one year old died Monday among the waves of Stinson beach in Marin County, Calif. despite the efforts of many, local news channels are reporting.
According to KTVU, the calf was reported to Marin County Parks around 7:00 a.m. and pronounced dead three hours later.
Discovered thrashing on its side, the whale was still alive and struggling to breathe when fire crews arrived, Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber told NBC.
Biologists were called in from the Marine Mammal Center; however, the animal was already dead by the time they arrived.
Though the death of the whale is unclear, the early morning joggers who first spotted the animal said they saw a gash on the whale's underside. According to KTVU, the center's spokeswoman Kate Harle reported that there was blood found around its mouth.
In all, the event gathered some 200 to 300 spectators.
"I've been working here 20 years and we've only had two or three beached whales in that time," David Link, a clerk at Stinson Beach Market, told the San Francisco Gate. "It's interesting, sure, but also really sad to see something like this happen."
According to NBC, the biologists plan on performing a necropsy once the tide goes down, after which they plan on burying it.
Capable of growing up to 85 feet in some regions of the world, fin whales are the second largest species of whale. Those present say the calf that washed ashore measured roughly 40 feet long.
Little is known about fin whales' social and mating systems, except that males become sexually mature between 6 and 10 years old and females between 7 and 12 years old. Gestation, meanwhile, can last up to a year with newborn calves measuring as many as 18 feet and weighing between 4,000 and 6,000 pounds.
Capable of living up to 90 years old, the largest of these mammoths can reach a total of 160,000 pounds by the time they reach 25 years old.