Dead whale washes up in Virginia Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., March 28 (UPI) -- Virginia authorities were studying a dead sei whale Monday that washed ashore Sunday morning.

Joan Barns of the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach told The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot a stranding team anchored the 4-foot female whale to the beach and would perform a necropsy.

Sei whales, an endangered species, normally frequent deep waters far offshore, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the species was greatly depleted by commercial whaling.

"This is not unusual, it does happen occasionally," Susan Barco of the aquarium told WCTI-TV.