A 44-foot-long sperm whale died sometime during the early morning hours Monday after it had beached itself in shallow water just off a Florida beach and rough surf conditions made rescue efforts impossible.

Mote Marine Laboratory was first notified of the stranded whale on Venice Beach along Florida’s west coast about 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Once Mote and others, including the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and NOAA, arrived on the scene, it was determined hazardous wave conditions, coupled with the 70,000-pound animal’s erratic behavior, made it unsafe for rescue efforts to continue.

About 1:45 p.m. Sunday, rescue personnel attempted to move close enough by boat to sedate the distressed animal, but once again rough surf stopped the effort. By 6 p.m., further attempts to reach the animal were called off until Monday morning.

Venice police remained at the scene, primarily to keep sightseers and swimmers out of the area. Rescue personnel returned at 7 a.m., at which point it was confirmed the whale had died.

“Anytime we have animals come in like this, especially when they’re still alive and we can’t get to it and help it, it’s heartbreaking,” said Mote’s Gretchen Lovewell during a Monday press conference. “It’s a gut-punch. We wanted to get to it yesterday, but it just couldn’t be done safely.”

Monday, the whale carcass was pulled further on shore to allow marine biologists to perform a necropsy and gather other data in hopes of determining what killed the whale, which was described as “emaciated.”

“The fact this animal was this close to shore and this skinny — something has been wrong for a while,” Lovewell said, adding that, on average, only about two whales per year become stranded along the Gulf of Mexico.

Once the necropsy is completed, the plan is for tug boats to drag the whale carcass out to sea. In the interim, the City of Venice has made that area of the beach off limits. Lovewell noted excessive amounts of the whale’s bodily fluids will go into the water during the necropsy, with the potential to draw predators to that area, including sharks.