Since last Thursday afternoon, when hikers in the Point Reyes National Seashore found a five-foot whale washed up on the coastline near Abbotts Lagoon, scientists have been wondering why a rarely seen species beached on Marin shores with no obvious cause.
The juvenile male pygmy sperm whale did not show signs presented by most beached members of its species: heart failure or a body full of discarded plastic. “We didn’t find anything on the outward…