Euthanized Pygmy Sperm Whale in California
On Sunday evening, rescue team had to euthanized pygmy sperm whale after it sustained serious injuries. The Malibu Surfrider Beach lifeguard were the ones that found the whale and called it in. When the Los Angeles County Fire Department came to the scene they worked hard to move the whale. The whale was repeatedly hitting against low tide rocks, causing deep scars. In the end, the California Wildlife Rescue and NOAA decided that the whale suffered too many injuries. It would be more humane to euthanize it to end its suffering.
In the last 45 years, there have been over 600 breaches whales and dolphins. Only three of these were Pygmy sperm whales. The last one was found in February 2021 in San Francisco Bay area. This is because Pygmy spent whales are deep water swimmers and are rarely seen above the surface. They only surface when the waters are extremely calm.
Since they are a deep-diving species they avoid being hit by vessels. This also prevents us from learning more about this rare species. What we know Is that they can be found in tropical places such as Hawaii and Gulf of Mexico. It’s estimated that there are less than four thousand of them in the North Atlantic waters. Over 11,000 are estimated to be in the East Pacific region. Most of everything that we know about them is from them being stranded or washed ashore.
It’s extremely frustrating to know that the euthanized pygmy sperm whale could not be saved. If someone saw it sooner we might have had more answers about this illusive species.
