California ? The carcass of a 70-foot blue whale rolled gently with the incoming waves at a beach about 10 miles north of Ventura on Friday as scientists from as far as the San Francisco area rushed to the scene.

Blue whales, the largest animal on Earth, have been migrating through the Santa Barbara Channel off the Southern California coast. How the one that drifted into the rocks off Hobson Beach died will not be known until scientists have extracted tissues and examined its vast body.

Beached less than 100 feet from the Old Pacific Coast Highway, the whale has drawn dozens of spectators, taking photos and giving their children a rare glimpse of a huge marine mammal.

Authorities had been tracking the carcass for a couple of days before it ran ashore.