The animal is beached on a sandbar in the inlet and the officials are waiting for the tide to rise to help in moving the animal to the Fort Pierce Inlet State Park where construction equipment will be used to pull it onto a beach, said Blair Mase, a federal marine mammal stranding coordinator.
Then up to 20 people from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and a Sea World nonprofit group will spend several hours probing the animal to find what happened.
"Something must have been wrong for it to come to shore," she said. "It was thin and in poor body condition."
In Florida, the humpback whales that die usually are juveniles. Five have died along Florida’s coastline in the past five years, she said.
The whale at the Fort Pierce Inlet was alive when the U.S. Coast Guard reported finding it in the middle of the night. Then it expired. "It is not common to have a fresh specimen," Mase said. "We should be able to learn a lot from it."
When the examination is done, the carcass is to be towed out to sea for disposal, she said.
During this time of year, humpback whales migrate southward in the ocean off Florida. The whales are a dark gray color and have large white fins.
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