Beachgoers in Orange County were frightened to find a 30-foot-long whale carcass on the shoreline Thursday.
Video sent to KTLA by Don Koland shows the decaying gray whale with seagulls perched atop it on the sand at Bolsa Chica State Beach.
A man who stumbled upon the grisly sight while riding his bicycle told the Orange County Register that he originally thought he saw “what looked like foam on the waves” but as he got closer, he realized it was a massive decomposing whale.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official confirmed to the Register that the dead marine mammal was likely brought onshore by the recent storms that pummeled Southern California last week, adding that whale carcasses washing ashore “typically happens” after storms.
Gray whales, who have the longest migration of any mammal in the world at 14,000 miles, are normally seen in Southern California between mid-February and early May as they make their way north to the Arctic from Baja California, according to The Marine Mammal Center.
NOAA data indicates that 95 gray whale strandings occurred on California beaches between Jan. 2019 and Nov. 2023.