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© Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach PostRescue teams remove a dead pygmy sperm whale that was stranded on Jupiter Island Tuesday morning, July 9, 2013
A mother pygmy sperm whale died and her calf was euthanized after they washed ashore Tuesday morning onto a Jupiter Island beach.

Authorities spotted the mother and her calf at about 8 a.m. while they patrolled the shore about five miles north of the Blowing Rocks Preserve.

Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach and Marine Animal Rescue Society responded and evaluated the whales.

John Cassady, an FWC biologist, said the approximately 9-foot, 800-pound mother died after she landed on shore.

Loggerhead veterinarians decided to euthanized the 3-foot, 100-pound calf, saying it could not survive on its own.

"The rehab potential for these animals is very small," Cassady said. "There really isn't much we can do for them once they do come up to the beach like this, especially with a calf that small."

Officials and volunteers used a winch on the back of an FWC pickup to drag the mother's carcass from the beach. They then lifted the whale and laid it on the truck's flatbed.

Steve Stanford was one of several volunteers who helped officials move the mother's carcass from the water.

Stanford, 31, of Palm City, said he and his 27-year-old brother saw the whales stranded while they were on break from painting a house.

It was the first time they saw whales up close, he said.

"That's why we were so interested," Stanford said. "It's different. You don't see (the whales) very often."

Officials then took the carcasses to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton for a necrospy.

Barbara Brunnick, research director for the Taras Oceanographic Foundation, performed the procedure and found the whales showed "no obvious signs" of how they died.

Brunnick said the mother may had been exposed to harmful toxins in the water or could not dive deep enough underwater for food.

Experts say 90 percent of pygmy sperm whales stranded on shore suffer from cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease.

But when Brunnick conducted Tuesday's necropsy on the mother, she said "there were no obvious problems with the heart."

The whales' internal organs have since been sent to Miami scientists for testing.

"If there was something internal, they'll figure that out in the lab," Brunnick said.

Tuesday's incident was the second pygmy sperm whale beach stranding in about a month.

On June 10, a 10-foot-long, 1,500-pound mother whale and her female calf landed on shore north of the Jupiter Reef Club. The mother died after she washed ashore, and veterinarians euthanized her 6-foot-long, 400-pound calf.

Whales can land on shore for a variety of reasons, experts say. They could lose their ability to navigate, separate from other whales or suffer from exhaustion.

If you spot a marooned marine animal, like a whale or a dolphin, on shore, please contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 888-404-3922.