Appeal commenter racqoon alerted us to the above video of the Ocean Beach whale‘s final trip into what I believe is unconsecrated ground.

Believed to be either an (endangered) fin or (also endangered) sei whale (the Marine Mammal Center’s doing DNA tests to determine that), the body was large enough to require a crew to spend most of Tuesday digging a grave for it on at Ocean Beach.

George Durgerian of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area told the Ocean Beach Bulletin that “the body will be buried far enough away from the tide line to not be exhumed by even the highest tides.” According to the Examiner, the whale’s buried under 3 feet of sand.

You can see the whale’s entire journey from shore to grave in the (speeded up, thank goodness) video above.

the author

Eve Batey is the editor and publisher of the San Francisco Appeal. She used to be the San Francisco Chronicle's Deputy Managing Editor for Online, and started at the Chronicle as their blogging and interactive editor. Before that, she was a co-founding writer and the lead editor of SFist. She's been in the city since 1997, presently living in the Outer Sunset with her husband, cat, and dog. You can reach Eve at eve@sfappeal.com.

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