A large pygmy sperm whale carcass that washed up by the Morris Island lighthouse near Charleston Friday was too decomposed to say what killed it, researchers concluded.

The whale stranding follows a string of 13 bottlenose dolphin carcasses since late February. A marine mammal stranding crew was in Charleston Harbor on Monday recovering another dolphin carcass. But the pygmy sperm carcass is only the second whale to wash up on a South Carolina beach this year. A dwarf sperm whale was discovered in January.

NAGS HEAD, N.C.

A North Atlantic right whale, one of the rarest animals in the world, washed ashore Sunday on an Outer Banks beach. The female whale had succumbed to injuries that may have been caused by a boat collision, experts said.