HOUSTON – A necropsy will be performed to determine why a 43-foot whale washed ashore on a Matagorda beach Tuesday at 10 a.m.
There are no plans to remove the whale yet due to limited resources and the size of the whale, officials said.
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The Marine Mammal Network is reminding those who come across the whale to beware of of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and to leave the whale alone because of health concerns.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission alerted the Flagler County Sheriff's Office about the whale at about 9:30 a.m.
The whale, which is estimated to weigh about 30,000 pounds, washed up onshore near Driftway Terrace. It had fishing gear wrapped around its tail, but that's not necessarily what caused it to die. Often times right whales are killed when they are hit or run over by ships.
The FWC will perform a necropsy to try to determine the whale's cause of death. It was only about a year old, officials said.