April 21--Vandals have spray-painted the corpse of a 48-foot male sperm whale that has been beached at Mori Point in Pacifica, Calif., for a week.
A photograph from KRON4 shows the decaying corpse vandalized and spray-painted in white with "East Bay Rats Motorcycle Club." The group is a Bay Area motorcycle club that formed in 1994.
The whale has been stranded on the beach since April 14, drawing hundreds of spectators to the Sharp Park State Beach.
Marine biologists performed a necropsy on the whale but have not yet determined a cause of death because tissue samples weren't fresh enough, according to the Marine Mammal Center.
Biologists did not find broken bones, but the whale suffered some hemorrhaging in its muscles. The hemorrhaging, however, does not indicate the whale suffered blunt-force trauma.
The massive animal was emaciated, but the contents of its stomach indicate it was eating.
Researchers are still trying to determine the age of the whale and are examining its teeth.
