Local Teen Comes Face-to-Face with Rare Pygmy Sperm Whale Along Gaviota Coast
GAVIOTA, Calif. (KEYT) – Axel Wright thought he was spending the day fishing off the Gaviota coast - but then he spotted something unusual in the water.
It was a pygmy sperm whale. Wright and his friends found the animal struggling near the shore. They pushed it back out, but it kept returning to the beach. So, Wright called the Channel Islands Cetacean Research Unit (CICRU).
For nearly two hours, Axel stayed in the water, hoping this little whale could make it. Sadly, the whale did not survive.
Andrea Dransfield, necropsy technician with Channel Islands Cetacean Research Unit (CICRU), conducted a necropsy on the juvenile whale on Monday, September 28.
"We have taken numerous tissue/organ samples and are currently waiting on the results for cause of death," said Dransfield. "This was a young, Pygmy sperm whale (young of the year). Pygmy sperm whales are cryptic and rarely observed. Their normal range and distribution includes the west coast. They are most common off coasts and along continental shelves."
Dransfield added that while it is often difficult to find a marine mammal in distress, it's best to leave things to Mother Nature.
"While people mean well and want to help, it is actually more stressful and harmful to the animal to try to refloat it and we don't advise it."
The cause of death was likely linked to the consumption of plastics, fishing debris, and trash, including a Cheetos bag.
"I've never seen anything like it before. It was like it had a really round head, like its eyes were really low," described Wright. "What we learned after is that its stomach was like 90% full of plastic, which is just like so heartbreaking that like these new animals are coming up here, can't find food or they're eating plastic. So yeah, it's really a bummer."
For Wright, the rare encounter became a difficult look at what marine animals can face in the ocean.
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