The U.S. Coast Guard is assisting the Marine Mammal Center in recovering a dead whale from the San Francisco Bay this evening, a petty officer said.
The Coast Guard was notified of the whale carcass, spotted between Fort Mason and Alcatraz, at about 1:30 p.m. by the San Francisco Police Department’s marine unit, Coast Guard Petty Officer Stanley Hickman said.
The Coast Guard sent out an 87-foot boat to tow the whale and make sure it doesn’t pose a navigational hazard in the Bay, Hickman said. A Marine Mammal Center scientist is on the boat and working with the Coast Guard as they determine a location to take the massive mammal.
A necropsy will then be conducted on the whale, which remained in the Bay as of 6 p.m., Hickman said.