MAYPORT, Fla., Jan. 26 (UPI) -- A fisherman found the body of a young Right Whale floating 200 yards off a Florida beach.
After the Coast Guard brought the carcass to a boat ramp in Mayport near Jacksonville, it was trucked to the University of Florida, First Coast News reported.
"It doesn't appear at this time to have anything other than natural causes wrong with it but that of course is under investigation for the necropsy," said Katie Jackson, a marine biologist with the Florida Wildlife Commission.
Rex O'Neal, who found the whale, said he could tell something was wrong with it almost as soon as he spotted it, although he kept his distance at first.
"I kind of stayed back because you're not supposed to be close to them," he said. "Then I realized he looked like he might be sick or something, but when I pulled up he was dead."
The Right Whale is one of the rarest animals on earth. Only a few hundred are believed to remain.
The whales calve off the coast of Georgia and Florida.
