We’re going very off topic today. No pretty plant pictures. Monday morning beach walkers discovered a 50 foot whale washed up on Ocean Beach between Kirkham and Lawton. It’s about a ten minute walk from our house, so we checked it out.

This is the second dead whale to turn up in the Bay Area within a week. On Thursday a tanker from San Diego struck and killed a Minke whale on its way in to the Port of Oakland. Word on the beach was that it looked like this guy was probably hit by a tanker as well, but it’s not certain if it was killed by the hit or already dead.

Researchers have narrowed down the species to either a Fin or Sei whale. Sadly both are endangered species. It was interesting to see a whale close up. I’d much rather have seen it spouting from the cliffs at Fort Funston.

Two researchers were taking samples of the giant.

You can see where a shark took some bites out of the tail and lower end of the body. They are planning on burying the body on the beach. We can smell the decaying whale while sitting in our backyard. It’s not pleasant. On a happier note, I saw a thriving dolphin jumping around after checking out the whale.