Dead Humpback Whale That Washed Ashore On A Pacifica Beach Likely Struck By Ship

PACIFICA (CBS SF) – A humpback whale that washed ashore at a Pacifica beach on Monday may have died after being struck by a ship.

Scientists from The Marine Mammal Center, California Academy of Sciences, and U.C. Davis performed a necropsy on the female humpback Wednesday morning.

"We've found about four broken vertebrae and some associated hemorrhaging," said Laura Sherr with The Marine Mammal Center. "It seems like it was a blunt force trauma and we're thinking right now it was a probable ship strike."

The whale also had one broken rib, but scientists did not find any further broken ribs making a ship strike less definitive.

The Marine Mammal Center collected additional samples to contribute to various research studies, and California Academy of Sciences archived pelvic bones, a rib and some broken pieces of bone from the spine.

Scientists did confirm the humpback is a 42-foot adult female. It had been previously thought to be a 32-foot juvenile.

The humpback was discovered on Pacifica's Sharp Park Beach on Monday evening. It was not far from Mori Point, where a beached sperm whale was found on April 14.