LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The 70-foot carcass of a blue whale washed up on a beach in Ventura County, about 50 kilometers northwest of Los Angeles on Friday morning.

    Scientists rushed to the scene to examine the vast body.

    Blue whales, the largest animal on earth, have been migrating through the Santa Barbara Channel on the California coastline, but how the one that drifted into the rocks off Hobson Beach died will not be known until scientists have taken tissue samples and examined its body.

    The whale has drawn dozens of spectators who have been 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.

    Ron Barrett, an environmental specialist for the Navy and a volunteer for a local wildlife group, said he could not recall a blue whale dying and washing ashore on the Ventura County coastline.

    Although what caused the death of the blue whale was still under investigation, ocean advocates blamed the U.S. navy for conducting tests of high-powered sonar devices believed to cause unbearable pain to whales and other ocean mammals.

    At issue is a mid-frequency sonar system called the SURTASS LTA system, which animal rights activists say caused numerous whale and dolphin strandings when it was last tested in 2003. The Navy has conducted a series of tests using high-powered sonar devices in California waters recently.