Very rare beaked whale washes up at Venice Beach

Heal the Bay says that a female Stejneger's Beaked Whale washed ashore last night on a stretch of beach in Venice. The whale was covered in shark bites, but there was no apparent indication of how it had died. From the Heal the Bay Facebook page: "The Stejneger's Beaked Whale is a Northern species that frequents our coast but is predominantly found in the waters of Alaska. It is VERY rare and almost never seen alive." The whale was loaded onto a truck and taken away for study by the Natural History Museum's Stranding Response Team, says the site.

Heal the Bay photo by Nick Fash.