A 30-foot sperm whale was discovered early Thursday morning in shallow waters off the shore of Tampa, Fla.
Beachgoers contacted wildlife officials about the whale just after 7:00 a.m., WTSP reported. Before long, hundreds had gathered on Madeira Beach.
One woman, Shelly Crain of Clearwater, even took her daughter out of school to see the whale.
"It is really interesting and it's a once in a life time thing to see," she told WTSP.
Normally deep-water animals, sperm whales rarely venture so close to shore, indicating that something was very wrong, wildlife officials said.
"It's obviously very thin and sick, but I can't really speak to what's going on inside the whale," said Erin Fougeres, a NOAA Marine Mammal Biologist.
So sick, in fact, officials estimated it had just a handful of days to live -- an observation that prompted them to euthanize it.
That afternoon, the whale was given a sedative, after which a University of Florida veterinary used a six-foot needle to inject a drug into the animal's chest in order to stop its heart.
"Although it looks large and scary, it is a very humane thing to do," Fougeres said.
The carcass was towed to Fort DeSoto where officials said it would be buried, but not before a necropsy is carried out.
"Our goal is to not only make sure the animal no longer suffers but also find out as much as we can for future events and study things we can only find out from an animal like this," Mike Walsh, a researcher with the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, said, according to The Ledger. "Is it infectious; is it toxic? What actually made the animal get into this shape and come ashore to die?"
Sperm whales are found throughout the world's oceans, though they've struggled to rebound from massive whaling excursions during the 18th and 19th century. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, their numbers are down from an estimated pre-whaling population of 1.1 million to some 100,000 today.
Click here to see pictures of the whale.