Stranded Whale Dies; Calf Euthanized

A whale that was stranded in shallow waters off Hollywood Beach Monday afternoon has died, and animal experts euthanized its calf.The whales were spotted in the water off the coast between Michigan and Johnson Streets.Photos: SlideshowVideo The Marine Animal Rescue Society sent animal specialists to help the mammals, which they believed to be a mother and her calf.Beachgoers rushed into the water to help the mother whale, which came ashore around noon. Hal Wallace, of Pembroke Pines, said he was forced to become a marine biologist for a few hours."She was acting pretty calm, and then when everybody was around him and he was on shore, he didn't want to breathe. So I told everyone, 'Let's just let him swim away from shore,' and he started moving on his own," Wallace told Local 10's Roger Lohse.A few blocks down the beach, the beaked whale calf wandered in the shallow water, looking for its mother after the two apparently became separated. Beachgoers were excited by the encounter with wildlife, but rescue workers were concerned."They usually come ashore for a reason. They're here because they're not well. It's their instinct to come to the beach when they're in that situation," said Blair Mays of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.Biologists said the animals were beaked whales, a rare deepwater species that scientists know little about. The mother was full-grown at about 16 feet long.Eventually, rescuers corralled the calf and took it to its mother, which had come ashore for a second time. The sick mother whale did what a mother of any species would do: It tried to break free of its rescuers to save its calf. The calf, too, was clearly eager to get close to its mother.But in a matter of minutes, the joy beachgoers felt when the two mammals reunited turned somber when the mother began to thrash violently in the water and then became still."A lot of times, whales go into something called death throes right before they die, and we were witness to that, unfortunately," Mays said.Beaked whales will not survive in captivity, and the calf was too young to fend for itself in the wild. Workers decided it would be most humane to put the calf down. Beachgoers were saddened by the way their encounter with the wild came to an end."It breaks my heart because I'm a mom and I know how moms feel about their babies," said beachgoer Phyllis Collins, who fought back tears as she spoke.The two mammals will be taken to the Marine Animal Rescue Society's laboratory on Key Biscayne, where biologists will perform necropsies in the hope of learning more about the rare species of whale.