A sperm whale stranded itself Saturday on the shores of a beach in St. Lucie County.
Officials with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were monitoring the whale, which was found washed ashore at Herman's Bay Beach on Hutchinson Island, NBC affiliate WPTV reported.
One witness, Cristina Maldonado, told WPTV that she was walking by and captured images of the stranded whale with a large rope wrapped around its lower jaw.
Maldonado said officials at the beach told her necropsy results on the whale may take up to six months, the station reported.
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