Aquarium: Beached whale on Maryland coastline is dead

OCEAN CITY, Md. – A beached whale that initially drew a large crowd of Maryland oceanfront onlookers is dead.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore sent a team to Ocean City on Sunday morning to assess the condition of the juvenile sperm whale.

The aquarium said in an afternoon news release that aquarium veterinarians determined the whale has died. It says the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Ocean City police will remove the animal from the beach. The department will perform a necropsy to determine what happened.

The small whale was reported stranded just before 7 a.m. outside the High Point South condominium complex.