The whale bone was discovered near the Flagler Beach pier in the late afternoon on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Courtesy photo by Tony Caruso

Omar Khayyam and Erik Martin attempt to pull the whale bone up the sand. Courtesy photo by Tony Caruso

A Marineland staff member (left) gathers around the bone with a few other locals to try to pull it up the sand. Courtesy photo by Tony Caruso

Whale jaw bone washes up on Flagler Beach

The whale bone was discovered near the Flagler Beach pier in the late afternoon on Wednesday, Feb. 14.

By:

Paige Wilson

Community Editor

Read more about Paige Wilson

Feb. 20, 2018

Two weeks after moving to Palm Coast from Massachusetts, Erik Martin was admiring the waves on Flagler Beach near the pier when he saw a large, unfamiliar mass close to the water’s edge.

“I didn’t know was it was at first,” Martin said. “It just looked like a big mass of something.”

What he original thought was a large tooth of a mammal turned out to be an upper jaw bone of a whale.

Flagler Beach resident Bradley Krisher had spotted the bone just before Martin on Wednesday, Feb. 14, but after taking a few photos on his iPhone, Krisher left to go get his camera. When he returned, a few individuals, including Martin, were around the bone.

A staff member from Marineland came to examine the bone and remove it from the shore, said Martin.

Flagler Beach photographer Tony Caruso saw his friend, Bradley Krisher, post about the bone on social media, so he grabbed his camera and headed to the shore to document the moment.

“I had never seen anything like that in my 38 years of life,” Martin said.

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