FLAGLER BEACH, Fla. -- Close to the Flagler Beach Pier, a whale skull washed up Wednesday and it took a team of people just to move it.
Thursday morning, under the pier, a crowd gathered around that unusual-looking object.
"This, we are certain is a baleen whale," George Biedenbach told the crowd. He is with the Georgia Aquarium Conservation Field Station in the town of Marineland.
Thursday morning, Biedenbach led a team from the Georgia Aquarium Office in Marineland to get it off the beach.
He and his teammates moved the skull onto a stretcher, and then strong bystanders were recruited to help walk the skull up the beach.
It weighs approximately 400 pounds and is about 8 feet long.
A total of eight men carried the skull up the steps to the sidewalk and placed it next to A1A.
Wednesday, someone found the skull washed up on the beach near the Flagler Beach Pier. Biologists checked it out and secured it to the pier Wednesday evening.
"Normally these skulls actually sink," Biedenbach explained. "For this to have washed up on shore, it's pretty unique in that regard."
The skull took up the entire length of the truck's bed.
Biedenbach, standing by the skull on the truck's bed, gave an instant biology lesson from the to the crowd.
"This is the upper jaw," he explained.
He could not say exactly what kind of whale it belonged to, only that it is a baleen whale, which includes several different kinds of whales.
Jim Hain with the Marineland Rigth Whale Project said it may be a humpback or a fin whale. He said it is probably from a juvenile whale.
Biedenbach said, "We're pretty certain this is not a right whale which is a good thing because right whales are critically endangered.
He said this is considered a stranding. Strandings can include live animals, dead animals, or parts of animals.
Terry Clark and Judy Bowman volunteer with the Right Whale Project.
"I think its' pretty awesome," Clark said. "Once in a lifetime, right."
"I actually learned a lot listening to him (Biedenbach) today. Really great experience," Bowman said.
A great experience... to learn and to teach people what to look for in the water and on the beach.
Biedenbach noted that teaching people during these incidents, "ultimately helps influence policy and influence potential changes to protect these species from a conservation standpoint."
After researchers study the skull, it will be put on display, possibly in a museum.