Community Corner

Lifeguards Grapple with Dead Whale in Seal Beach

The third time's a charm: After a gray whale drifts into the area three times, lifeguards manage to tow it away from the pier.

Lifeguarding isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sure, you get to bask in the sun and protect bikini-clad women from the perils of the sea...

But then there are days such as Tuesday.

That’s when Seal Beach Marine Safety Lt. Chris Pierce had to dive in the water and tie a rope around the 10-day-old rotting corpse of a California Gray whale floating alongside the pier.

Find out what's happening in Los Alamitos-Seal Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“He made an impressive maneuver, diving under the whale,” said Seal Beach Marine Safety Chief Joe Bailey. “It was really a fantastic dive.”

The smell was something only a rotting whale can produce, yet Pierce didn’t have to be asked to take on the job; he volunteered, Bailey said.

Find out what's happening in Los Alamitos-Seal Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The whale had washed up in Long Beach last week, but officials there struggled to drag it out to sea because it was so heavy and filled with water that the line broke repeatedly.

On Sunday, as city officials were dealing with flooding from the high surf, the whale washed ashore near Neptune Avenue. It washed back out to sea, but showed up again Tuesday just off the pier.

After Pierce managed to tie a rope around its tail, the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol towed it 10 miles off the coast. As happened with the Long Beach officials, the line broke repeatedly. However, it’s now far enough out that it will likely sink before it can wash ashore a fourth time, said Bailey.

In Seal Beach, dead whales wash ashore every couple of years. They are sometimes buried or towed farther out to sea. Because of rope marks around its tail, authorities in Long Beach believed it may be the same juvenile whale rescued from fishing netting off the coast of Laguna Beach two weeks ago.

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