Dead Whale Washes Up on Avon-by-the-Sea Beach [PHOTOS]

A walk on the beach in Avon-by-the-Sea to watch the lunar eclipse Sunday night took an unexpected turn when the remains of a whale were found on the sand. 

Jamie Penrose and friends were going to the Lincoln Avenue beach in Avon to play their guitars during the lunar eclipse on Sunday night.  Penrose's friend nonchalantly mentioned they saw a dead whale that had washed up. That's when Jamie went to take a look and snap these pictures. Penrose added "I wish I found her alive so I could help her get back in the ocean, but she definitely died out at sea."

Townsquare Media Shore Bureau News Director Tom Mongelli spoke to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine and was told there were no signs of trauma or of attack by predator species, but the whale had been dead for a while. It is also a protected species, which means that it couldn’t be diced for bait or any other purpose. The responsibility falls to the town to cart it away, likely to a landfill. It was about 15 feet long, perhaps adolescent, but the MMSC said it had been dead so long that they couldn’t determine an age.