LOS ANGELES _ A dead whale floated into the Port of Long Beach Wednesday evening, triggering a debate on what to do with the corpse until wildlife officials asked that it be kept nearby for future study, officials said.
The 20- to 30-foot whale was found before 7 p.m. near a container ship and Pier T, which is located near a channel leading into the inner harbor, said Jake Heflin, a Long Beach Fire Department spokesman.
A fire boat crew was going to tow the whale beyond the breakwater but instead ended up tying it to a pier at the request of the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Heflin said.
Those agencies will work to determine the whale's cause of death, he said.
The whale could still be seen floating by the pier Thursday morning.
