Fla. scientists examining beached sperm whale's remains

Kathryn Bursch and Grayson Kamm | WTSP-TV, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.

Show Caption Hide Caption Scientists examine beached whale's remains Florida scientists are performing a necropsy on a sperm whale Nov. 1, 2013, that likely tops 10 tons.

Scientists determined that the whale was a male and an adolescent but was near death

Sperm whales normally live in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico eating fish and squid

These whales have the largest brains of any known creature on earth

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A necropsy for an emaciated sperm whale that beached itself in the shallow waters near John's Pass is happening Friday, a day after veterinarians had to euthanize it.

The 32-foot adolescent male whale, whose body is the size of a school bus and likely tops 10 tons, was towed from Madeira Beach, Fla., to Fort de Soto Park at the entrance to Tampa Bay where scientists are performing the animal autopsy to determine what sickened the whale that normally lives deep in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hundreds came to see him Thursday morning as he struggled near the shore. Marine scientists say the whale clearly was not well and was far too large to take somewhere for medical care. If he had been pushed out to sea, biologists say he would have beached himself again somewhere else.

"He didn't get to have a long and healthy life, which is quite a shame," Mike Walsh, co-director of the Aquatic Animal Health program at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine, told The Tampa Tribune.

Sperm whales, the species immortalized in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, have the largest brain of any known creature on earth, according to National Geographic. They eat fish and squid and can dive as deep as almost 3,300 feet in search of them.

"It's horrible," Sue Sciara said Thursday as she watched the tide roll out and the whale get nearer to death. "I'm an animal lover and it's just really sad."

By afternoon veterinarians knew they couldn't help the animal at Madeira Beach, so they sedated him and euthanized him. Then they towed him about 10 miles south to Fort de Soto Park where Friday morning they examined his remains for parasites and wounds and by afternoon they were cutting his carcass open in hopes of determining whether he became sick from natural causes or some interaction with humans.

Before Thursday, an emaciated sperm whale beached itself most recently in 2007 near the Sunshine Skyway bridge across Tampa Bay, according to Laura Engleby, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southeast marine mammal branch chief.