Dead Blue Whale May Wash Up

According to ocean outfitters such as Santa Barbara’s Condor Express and Ventura’s Island Packers, the blue whale season has been one for the record books here in the Santa Barbara Channel. And according to scientists at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, it’s about to get even more exciting – they believe a dead 70-foot blue whale that’s been floating in the channel for the past couple days may wash up on our coastline.

Scientists do not want to speculate on what may have caused the whale’s death – nor do they want to be specific about where it is – but they’ve been tracking its movements from the west end of the channel toward the Ventura County line and plan to do a necropsy if it does hit shore. Then they will be able determine whether the whale died from old age or something more drastic. It’s also possible that currents could push the whale south out of the channel and out of this region.