Dead humpback washes ashore in Seaside

Published 8:55 am Wednesday, February 3, 2016

SEASIDE, Ore. — A dead 24-foot humpback whale washed ashore Jan. 31 in Seaside.

Keith Chandler, the manager of Seaside Aquarium, said a team of marine experts from Portland State University and the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network moved the whale Feb. 1 to another part of the beach just south of 12th Avenue.

The experts will collect samples from the whale to determine how it died. The animal was maybe a year old, Chandler said, and had been dead for quite a while.

City employees will bury the whale at the beach.

Chandler said it is not unusual to see a humpback wash ashore.

“There were a few humpbacks hanging out in the mouth of the Columbia River last year,” he said. “They are usually further offshore. It could have died offshore and with the storm, washed in.”