A dead juvenile gray whale washed up on a North County beach Friday morning.
A beachgoer found the roughly 22-foot carcass at the edge of the water in the Del Mar Shores area of southern Solana Beach shortly before 7:30 a.m., lifeguard Sgt. Greg Uruburu said.
City crews waited for low tide, then used a heavy-lifting machine to load the whale onto a flatbed truck for transport to Miramar Landfill. The personnel had the carcass off the beach by about 3 p.m., Uruburu said.
It was unclear what caused the death of the whale, which was believed to be 1 to 2 years old, though a National Marine Fisheries Service employee told lifeguards it appeared to have been undernourished, the sergeant said.
