A dead whale was found off the coast of Black's Beach Monday morning.
© San Diego Fire-Rescue DepartmentA dead whale was found off the coast of Black's Beach Monday morning.
A dead gray whale found in the water west of Black's Beach on Monday morning will be hauled to a landfill, officials said.

Lifeguards spotted the lifeless mammal around 11 a.m., San Diego Fire-Rescue spokeswoman Mónica Muñoz said.

National Marine Fisheries decided that lifeguards could tow the carcass to Fiesta Island, she said. It will be anchored there for the night, then a city crew will haul it to a landfill in the morning.

Jim Mulbery, a spokesman for with National Marine Fisheries, a federal agency, said officials will go to Fiesta Island on Tuesday to take a genetic sample of the whale. But it's not likely they will be able to determine a cause of death, he said.

"It's really badly decomposed," he said.

Because the carcass was so close to shore, it's towed in for disposal rather than let it wash up on a beach, where it would have to then be disposed of.

Gray whales are migrating north, as they do annually.