Venice Florida

The carcass of sperm whale that became stranded on a sandbar and died Monday off a Venice-area beach has been towed out to sea.The Sea Tow Venice marine towing service used a heavy towline and rig line, provided by the City of Venice, to take the whale's remains 10-15 miles offshore on Tuesday.

The death of a sperm whale off the Venice coast this morning, while difficult even for marine experts who deal with such things, could be a learning experience for them."Every time you see a whale in distress, like we did yesterday, it's, it's always really hard. It's really hard. And so all we can do is utilize the opportunity to learn as much about them as we can," Laura Engleby, chief of NOAA's Marine Mammal branch, said Monday morning standing on the beach near the whale's carcass. "And then that helps us understand some of the things that we can do to ultimately recover and help them. And so, in that way, that's how we have to think about it. "

Venice Police and Sarasota County Sheriff's units on Sunday were assisting Mote Marine Laboratory staff with a beached sperm whale off the coast of Venice. The 70-feet-long whale was beached on a sandbar about 50 yards out from Service Club Park.

U.S. Coast Guard St. Petersburg is seeking information on a missing boat with four male occupants.A search for the men had been expanded into Lee and Collier county waters of the Gulf of Mexico on Monday. Coast Guard suspended the search late Monday.

Several community groups in Venice are asking the state for permission to install dozens of floating reefs underneath people’s docks to provide fish habitat and help clean coastal seawater.

The Venice Shark Tooth Festival was back after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.