FAIRHAVEN, Mass. (AP) - Efforts to save a minke whale found stranded on the coast of Massachusetts have failed and the marine mammal has been euthanized.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said the whale spotted Tuesday morning in Fairhaven was too sick to save.

Rescuers tell WBSM-AM that what appeared to be a juvenile female estimated to be about 15-feet long and about 2,400 pounds had been stranded as long as 12 hours before it was discovered.

A necropsy will be performed on the carcass.

Minke whales are the second smallest baleen whale and can grow up to 30 feet in length and 30,000 pounds.

A dead minke whale was found off Scituate on Sept. 9 and a shark was spotted feeding on a minke carcass off Duxbury on Sept. 1.

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Information from: WBSM-AM, http://www.wbsm.com

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