Just like that, beached whale on Galveston is examined and buried

Officials conduct a necropsy on a whale near the Terramar Beach subdivision on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015, in Galveston. The 44-foot-long Sei whale died a day earlier after becoming stranded in shallow waters along the West End of Galveston Island. less Officials conduct a necropsy on a whale near the Terramar Beach subdivision on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015, in Galveston. The 44-foot-long Sei whale died a day earlier after becoming stranded in shallow waters ... more Photo: J. Patric Schneider, For The Chronicle Photo: J. Patric Schneider, For The Chronicle Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close Just like that, beached whale on Galveston is examined and buried 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

Heavy front-end loaders Wednesday pushed the remains of a 44-foot whale into a deep beach trench as dozens of onlookers watched the rare burial on a warm Galveston Island afternoon.

The carcass was buried after a seven-hour necropsy, or animal autopsy, to determine what illness caused the deep-water dwelling mammal to beach himself on a sandbar where he died about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Examiners began the necropsy about 8 a.m. and raced against an incoming tide to complete their work before the whale became submerged. They cut deep into the carcass to examine its vital organs and take samples before finishing about 3 p.m.

The work was carried out on the shoreline in the Terramar Beach subdivision, where the whale was pulled from the surf with chains attached to two front-end loaders after it died.

After the necropsy, the front-end loaders owned by the Galveston Park Board pushed the carcass into the trench carved earlier, said Heidi Whitehead, state operations coordinator for the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

Burial in a beach trench is a common method of disposing of marine mammal carcasses, Whitehead said. Whales rarely are found on the Texas Coast, about once every two years, but in every case the remains are buried on the beach or trucked to a nearby landfill. Most of the 150 dolphins stranded every year are dead and they are typically buried on the beach, she said.

The necropsy determined that the whale was a male but failed to determine what caused it to abandon its home in the deep Gulf of Mexico for shallow inshore waters.

"We haven't found a cause of death at this point," Whitehead said after the necropsy. "It's way too soon to draw conclusions."

Whale stranded on Galveston island pic.twitter.com/cEeGLQDwZC — jeri kinnear (@jerikinnear) December 22, 2015

Whitehead, who led the necropsy with help from several members of her staff, said that specimens taken during the necropsy were being sent to a laboratory for analysis. But even then there is no certainty that the cause of the whale's death will be determined.

Determining the cause is like sorting through a puzzle, Whitehead said. The notes taken during the necropsy and laboratory results are puzzle pieces. "Then we can start putting the puzzle pieces together," she said.

Even if the cause of death is never determined, so little is known about marine mammals in the Gulf that results of the necropsy could help chip away at the questions about whales, Whitehead said.

A passerby had spotted the whale floundering in the shallow water early Tuesday morning, drawing people from around the region to observe what they hoped would be a rescue effort. But the whale was too ill to be saved, said network officials, who had planned to euthanize it before it died naturally.

Volunteers with the nonprofit network helped pull the dead whale from the water onto the beach. They stood watch over the carcass during the night.

@JohnWFerguson I hope they can save it! : ( — Erin Tobz (@TikiIslandTX) December 22, 2015

The whale has been tentatively identified as a Sei whale, but further testing is needed to determine the whale's species, said network officials. Sei (pronounced "say" or "sigh") whales are members of the baleen whale family and are considered one of the "great whales" or rorquals, according to the National Institute of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Sei whales, which usually grow to between 40 feet and 60 feet long and weigh as much as 100,000 pounds, prefer subtropical to subpolar waters and are typically seen in deep ocean waters far from the coastline. The whales do not usually inhabit near-shore waters in the Gulf.

Often, unhealthy whales can get confused or lose control in heavy currents and end up close to shore, said Dr. Chris Marshall, an assistant professor in the marine biology department at Texas A&M University in Galveston.

"If they are sick or something is why they come up in shallow waters," Marshall said.

In February 2011, a pygmy sperm whale that was found stranded in shallow surf along Galveston's West End was euthanized to end its suffering. A veterinarian who examined the whale determined that the animal could not live in captivity and was in no condition to be released.

Staff writer Dale Lezon contributed to this report.