VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A dead humpback whale was discovered along the shore of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Sunday morning, a rare sighting many beach residents had never seen before.
“I've been here my whole life and I've never seen it up this close.” Giada Cavaliere, a Virginia Beach Resident said.
Witnesses at the beach noticed the whale early Sunday. “I was looking out my balcony and I saw people gathering and I could see a big hump at the edge of the ocean, and I thought oh, somebody's down there saving a whale or something.” Leslyn Johnson said.
The young whale was found beached between 24th and 25th streets. Beachgoers told 13News Now that crews responded at around 10:30 a.m.
It's the 5th whale to wash up in recent years.
Rescue staff from the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center used heavy equipment to move the juvenile humpback whale out of the surf. Aquarium staff say the whale is a male, anywhere from 4-10 years old and is nearly 32 feet long.
Sharif Young, a Chesapeake resident, was heading to the Oceanfront to ride his longboard when he spotted the whale.
"I just see this giant conglomeration of people coming over, so I was like 'What's going on?'" said Young. "I see this little like wavy thing, and I was like 'Is that a whale?' So, I just came on down and there was a whale."
He told 13News Now that he's never seen something like this, calling the situation "really sad."
Aquarium staff say that they're going to perform a necropsy sometime tomorrow to determine a cause of death and once the necessary heavy equipment arrives, officials said the whale will be buried 25-30 feet below the sand.
In the meantime, aquarium officials urge beachgoers to stay a "safe distance" away from the whale and gear at the scene. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, it is illegal to touch beached whales.