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© Nic Coury
Biologists arrived at San Carlos Beach near Cannery Row early on Friday morning to examine the carcass of a 20-foot humpback whale that washed ashore the night before.

Although the whale's corpse was no longer resting on the shore Friday morning, it was still floating near the beach, says Justin Viezbicke, the stranding coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA biologists have taken small skin samples of the dead whale and hope to conduct a necropsy, but so far, it has proven to be a challenge to find a place to conduct the procedure.

"We don't know what happened. It came up last night and we are now trying to figure out why it died," Viezbicke says. The whale's carcass was reported about 9pm on Thursday.

Viezbicke says the whale's death is not surprising since a large number of the large animals have been seen in Monterey Bay recently, mostly engaging in feeding frenzies on krill.

In order to keep the whale away from washing up on the shore again, it would have to be hauled 35 feet away from the shore. Viezbicke says NOAA is having trouble finding a big enough vessel to drag the whale deeper into the Bay.