An excavator jabbed its claw into a Pacifica beach Tuesday morning, carving out the first of two holes in the sand that will become burial sites for a pair of whales that washed ashore and then became too stinky for neighbors’ liking.
The big dig at Sharp Park State Beach began at 8 a.m., could continue for a couple of days. and will cost the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department $40,000 because it maintains the property, said officials overseeing the unusual “quality of life” operation.
They said the whales will be dragged into the holes, starting with the northernmost — and smelliest — of the two, a 42-foot female humpback. As the job kicked off, one onlooker watched the excavator from afar, as workers had blocked off the area with yellow caution tape.
The humpback whale washed up May 5 with injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, and might have been hit by a ship, said researchers after performing a necropsy on the beach. They found four broken vertebrae, surrounding hemorrhaging and a broken rib.
A 48-foot sperm whale washed up April 14 about a quarter-mile south of the humpback. Scientists could not pin down a cause of death in the earlier case, but ruled out the possibility that the sperm whale had been struck by a ship.
The two whales have inspired gawkers and marine biologists to visit the beach, but who would take care of the corpses was a bit of a debate. The city initially decided to let the whales decompose where they lay, the method endorsed by marine biologists, but some said the smell was just too much.