Update 3:40 p.m. May 20, with delay in removal of carcass.
A dead fin whale washed up overnight on a Point Loma beach, leaving authorities Monday with the stinky task of removing the huge carcass.
They postponed the task of removing the dead fin whale from a Point Loma beach while continuing to weigh options for the job.
Lifeguards, city parks-and-recreation workers and personnel with the National Marine Fisheries Service initially planned to drag the carcass into the ocean with a power boat at high tide Tuesday afternoon and then tow it to Fiesta Island, where the federal agency would be able to perform a necropsy.
A passerby had spotted the remains of the roughly 50-foot-long cetacean near Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant on Gatchell Road, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
As the high-water time approached, the agencies were still conferring on the best way to remove the carcass, necessitating the delay, fire spokesman Lee Swanson said.
In Los Angeles over the weekend, thousands of dead anchovies blanketed the surface of a portion of Marina del Rey, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“It was just a sheet of silver,” said Michael Quill of the environmental group Los Angeles Waterkeeper, set to take a group of high school students on a boat trip Sunday morning.
The Times said reports of the dead fish started coming in about 11 p.m. Saturday.
KTLA quoted officials as estimating 3,000 to 4,000 fish carcasses were removed from the harbor.
“It was unclear why exactly the dead fish washed up in the first place, but one marine expert speculates the amount of fish could have sucked the oxygen out of the water, and that could have caused them to die,” KTLA said.
— City News Service contributed to this report.
