A whale of a time

Deepa Bharath

It was more blubber than Newport Beach could handle.

So a lifeguard boat hauled a dead gargantuan whale, about 60 feet

long, that drifted all day in the Newport Harbor entrance and tried to

give it a ride back to the deep.

“In my 30 years here, I’ve never seen anything this big,” said Newport

Beach Fire Capt. John Blauer. “We have some sea animal or the other every

year, but nothing this huge. I’msurprised.”

Lifeguards have lugged large dolphins and sea lions in the past,

Blauer said, but nothing like this.

On Friday, they tied a rope to their boat, hooked it onto the dead

whale and set off north toward Sunset Beach.

In an odd twist, two large sharks, identified by lifeguards as great

whites, vigorously attacked the carcass, making the lifeguards’ job all

the more challenging.

“It was a spectacular show at the harbor,” said Newport Beach

Lifeguard Josh Van Egmond. “One of those sharks was 18 feet long and the

other was 25 feet. It was quite amazing.”

Van Egmond said about 6 p.m. that he spoke to one of the lifeguards on

the boat and he said the great white sharks were still hungrily feeding

on the whale.

Blauer said the lifeguard boat planned to drop off the dead whale near

Sunset Beach.

“But we’ll leave the rope on,” he added. “So if any other agency wants

to take it from there, they can.”

He said Newport Beach lifeguards had already informed all agencies

from here to Ensenada about the whale.

It was proving to be quite a task for the small lifeguard boat, Blauer

said.

“Our rescue boats are about 30 feet long,” he explained. “But the

whale dwarfs our boat.”

Blauer said the lifeguards aboard are going to have to be patient with

their assignment.

“They’re able to travel only 2 mph,” he said. “It’s going to take them

at least a couple hours to hit Sunset Beach.”

The Hill family from Newport Beach followed the lifeguard boat two

miles into the ocean.

“We’d never seen anything like that before,” said Carson Hill, 13, who

was out with dad Gary, mom Sandi and 16-year-old brother Morgan.

“We saw the whale was upside down being towed by the boat,” he said.

“The great white sharks were biting it from the back viciously and

chomping away.”

But the family turned back when one of the sharks went under the boat,

he said.

“Our boat was only 15 feet,” Hill said. “We heard the shark was bigger

than that.”

Whales washing up in Newport Beach have not been a common occurrence.

Recently, a baby pilot whale washed ashore near 22nd Street, west of

Newport Pier in January.

Blauer recalled that about 10 years ago, another washed up near 27th

Street, although it was not half as big as Friday’s whale.

Just last week, a 45- to 50-foot-long whale rolled onto the dog beach

in Huntington Beach. Scientists said it was a fin or sei whale, a close

relative of the rare blue whale. It was buried in the sand on the beach,

but not before it caused a stink.

In the last three years, about 150 whales and dolphins have washed up

on California’s shores each year and thousands of dead seals and sea

lions also come in, according to the National Wildlife Fishery Services.

Scientists say deaths could be caused when whales are attacked by sea

creatures or if they are hit by passing ships or even attacked by human

beings.

Blauer said it is common for cities to drag these dead marine animals

back to the ocean.

“It’s better than have them wash up,” he said. “This way we can let

predators and other sea creatures take the last bite.”

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 deepa.bharath@latimes.comf7 .