EVERETT — For the second day in a row, federal biologists were trying to help a beached whale in Everett.
The 40-foot gray whale’s breathing was noticeably more labored than on Thursday and the outcome isn’t promising, officials said.
“Really the goal right now is to keep it comfortable,” said Kristin Wilkinson, a marine mammal biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The whale this morning was again beached near Harborview Park, resting on its belly in shallow water. Before the tide changed, it was even more exposed and stuck than it was Thursday.
A team of biologists arrived at the stranding scene at about 11 a.m. and draped a special mesh sheet over the whale. They were trying to keep the whale wet and protect it from the sun.
They also applied zinc oxide and eyes and blowhole, places where it can easily blister, Wilkinson said.
Government biologists and local volunteers spent several hours Thursday morning dousing the whale with water. It was able to free itself and swam away when the tide came in.
The whale today was not far from where it became stuck on Thursday, although it appeared to be higher on the beach.
“It just makes you want to cry,” said Peggy Ludwig of Everett, who approached the whale on the beach this morning. “It is just tragic. It is just such a magnificent animal.”
Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the prognosis was not good and that today’s stranding was to be expected.
“The outcome for stranded whales is never very good,” he said. “It is almost certainly a sick whale.”
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