Officials
in Florida are investigating a report that swimmers might have been trying to
ride a sickly sperm whale before it died off the coast of an Atlantic beach.
The
35-foot (10.6-meter) creature was spotted yesterday (Dec. 16) morning just off
Pompano Beach and never quite stranded. As it floated close to the shore, a
woman from a nearby condo snapped a picture that allegedly shows two people
paddling out to the whale and one getting on top of it. That witness told
local NBC station WTVJ-TV she saw the swimmers approach the whale
twice, adding that she believed the creature was still alive at the time, since
she saw its tail flapping.
Her
testimony could land those beachgoers in hot water, as close encounters of this
kind are illegal under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Blair Mase, NOAA's
southeast marine mammal stranding coordinator, explained to LiveScience.
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