It has become a game of who gets the whale next.

San Clemente State Beach lifeguards tied a boat to the whale carcass on Thursday to tow Wally, a dead humpback that first washed ashore before the Fourth of July holiday weekend at Dockweiler State Beach, away from the coastline.

That makes it six times the massive 45-foot whale has needed to be tugged further out to the ocean by authorities to keep it from coming back on the beach. The size of the rotting mammal makes it a difficult trek, and the task can take hours on the water just to pull it a few miles out.

Mark Allen, lifeguard chief for Orange Coast District/South Sector said Wally was spotted about two miles from Cotton’s Point when lifeguards decided to pull it back out. They hoped to take it out about 10 miles from shore. A 15-foot shark checked them out at about the eight-mile mark, Allen said, but didn’t try to eat the whale.

“I think it’s way too decomposed,” he said.

This is a day after the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol towed the whale back out to the ocean after it came close to the beach. And earlier in the week, Newport Beach guards twice had to keep it away from the coastline.

Before that, the whale needed a lift when it came within a half-mile of San Pedro. And of course, there was the initial tow out after it landed at Dockweiler just as the holiday crowds were filling the beach.

Wally was featured on a YouTube video that went viral last year with 1 million page views, a rainbow showing in her spout as she cruised along Crystal Cove.

Authorities in San Clemente are especially worried about the big whale landing on the beach.

The cobblestone dotting some beaches makes it especially hard to tow a creature out after it washes ashore, and getting equipment on the beach to cut it up and haul it away – like they had to do in April when a 40-foot whale washed ashore at Trestles – cost upward of $30,000.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com