Florida the Rules are different here Chapter XXXIX

Whale necropsies as tourist attractions. If they can't bring it on land, you have to suppose the vets will do it right there on the beach. Don't you just love Florida.

Hat tip- Stuck On The Palmetto: Moby Stink. Rick warns everyone to take a can of air freshener with them if they visit the Keys this weekend.

Open Post- Bullwinkle Blog, Bright & Early, Basil's Blog,

BIG PINE KEY, Fla. -- A 35-foot sperm whale that beached itself off Big Pine Key on Monday died Tuesday afternoon.

The 15-ton whale, which experts said was emaciated, had to labor in order to breathe and had been attacked by sharks, died at about 1 p.m.

"All the people working here, all the people involved in the stranding network, our heart goes out to this animal. It's really hard," said veterinarian Dr. Robert Stevens.
Marine experts had been trying to rescue the whale since Monday morning.

"We waited for the animal to calm down before we tried to do anything with it yesterday," said Celeste Weimer, of the Marine Mammal Rescue team. "We gave it a bunch of tranquilizers to sedate it. Unfortunately, that didn't work for euthanizing the animal."

The sick whale had to remain in the shallow water overnight, bleeding, making it a target for sharks, which apparently attacked it during the night.

Experts believe the whale beached itself because it was ill, but the cause of its sickness has not been determined.

"It's been sick for a while," Weimer said. "It's extremely thin. It's lost 10 to 12 inches of blubber. It hasn't eaten in a long time. It could be any number of things from a bacterial infection, a viral infection, possibly some kind of human interaction," Weimer said. "We don't know that until we can get in there and look at it."

Experts and veterinarians said they would attempt a modified necropsy, or an autopsy for animals in the water in order to determine the whale's age, sex and possibly what killed it, NBC 6's Hank Tester reported.

Rescuers said the whale's carcass was too big to move to land.

"We're going to tow it off shore, and we're going to tow it way, way off shore so that it doesn't come back to us, and hopefully it'll stay out there. We'll sink it, and it will go back to the earth," said Vicki Cornish, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.