Crews work to clear 51-foot-long dead fin whale from Torrance Beach 

Crews are working to clear a large whale that washed ashore at Torrance Beach Saturday night, but doing so is no easy task. 

According to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the fin whale appeared to be very sick and in distress when it was spotted inside the surf line around 6 p.m. 

Officials from the Marine Mammal Care Center and the National Marine Fisheries Service were quickly dispatched to the area; however, the whale was pronounced dead about an hour later.   

The cause of death is not yet known, but the whale was observed to have bumps on its skin that were “uncharacteristic” to that species. 

More than 12 hours after it first washed ashore, crews were still working to tow the enormous mammal – which is the second biggest whale on Earth after the blue whale – away from the water so that marine experts could collect samples and specimens. 

“Right now, we are working to stabilize the whale so that the National Marine Fisheries Service can do a necropsy,” Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Murphy told KTLA 5’s Annie Rose Ramos just after 10 a.m. Sunday.  “That way they can understand why it died and why it washed up on the beach…and if they are able to conduct a necropsy, it’s going to allow us to get it offshore. Once we get it offshore, hopefully it will sink and feed the ecosystem at the bottom of the ocean.” 

Two tractors were seen pulling the carcass away from the shoreline; they used an old fire hose to wrap the chains around the tail so as not to cut into it, Chief Murphy said.

Large crowds gathered to get a look at the situation for themselves, but they couldn’t get too close, as officials cordoned off the part of the beach where the whale washed up so the public would not interfere with the workers and biologists.

No timetable for when the entire process of removing the whale, conducting testing and releasing it back into the water was immediately available.

Originally thought to be 40 feet long, the whale was officially measured at 51 feet and 3 inches long Sunday morning. Experts believe the whale weighs approximately five tons.