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An extremely rare whale distinguished by its long saber-like teeth and preference for sub-arctic waters has washed ashore in Venice Beach between the Venice Pier and Marina del Rey.

The female Stejneger's beaked whale, also known as the Saber-tooth whale, washed up overnight Tuesday and was taken for examination to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.

Experts are puzzling over how the species, typically found in the Bering Sea or the freezing waters off Japan, managed to get so far south.

Discovery: Heather Doyle, director of Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium points out shark bites found on the beached Stejneger's beaked whale that washed ashore Tuesday in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles
Discovery: Heather Doyle, director of Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium points out shark bites found on the beached Stejneger's beaked whale that washed ashore Tuesday in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles

'We helped get it out of the water,' Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue told City News Service.

'I was kind of shocked because we couldn't identify it.'

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Nick Fash, an education specialist at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, told the Los Angeles Times that he was so excited when he got word of the whale Tuesday night that he cycled to Venice 'as fast as he could.'

'These whales are incredibly rare and almost never seen in the wild,' Fash said.

Toothy: The Stejneger's beaked whale has distinctive teeth that protrude from its lower jaw
Toothy: The Stejneger's beaked whale has distinctive teeth that protrude from its lower jaw

The 14-foot whale was covered with bites from a cookiecutter shark, so called for its habit of gouging round plugs, as if with a cookie cutter, out of larger animals.

The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum's Stranding Recovery Team loaded the carcass of the whale onto a flat-bed truck for examination.

Fash told the Los Angeles Times that it is 'basically unheard of,' for a Stejneger's beaked whale to be found in such good condition so far south, so scientists are eager to learn more information about the elusive species through necropsy.

Biologists carrying out the necropsy will be seeking information such as how the whale died and what her diet consisted of. 

Stejneger's beaked whales have long tapering bodies similar to dolphins and the males have tusk-like teeth that protrude from their mouths. 

Females and juveniles have the teeth, but they're hidden beneath a layer of gum.

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