An endangered fin whale that washed up near a coastal trail in Alaska’s largest city has attracted curious onlookers while biologists seek answers as to what caused the animal’s death.

The carcass found over the weekend near Anchorage was 47 feet (14.3 meters) long – comparable to the width of a college basketball court – and female, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration biologists.

Barbara Mahoney, a NOAA biologist examining the whale, told the Anchorage Daily News the whale was likely 1 to 3 years old.

Fin whales are the second-largest whale species, according to NOAA Fisheries, and fully grown can reach up to 85 feet long and weigh between 40 tons and 80 tons. Strikes by ships, entanglements in fishing gear, underwater noise and the effects of climate change are among the threats that fin whales face, according to the agency.

Mandy Keogh, a NOAA marine mammal stranding coordinator, said fin whales generally aren’t seen this close to Anchorage and that recent high tides may have pushed the animal further into the Knik Arm.

People trekked across the mudflats to see the whale, which NOAA biologists and staff from Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services had anchored to the shore Sunday so they would be able to gather samples from the animal. But even after samples are analyzed, it can be difficult to determine a cause of death because of decomposition or a lack of obvious injuries, Keogh said.

Daisy Grandlinard was among the parents who accompanied a group of children to see the whale Monday. As they drew closer, they could smell it, she said.

“It was really interesting for the kids to be able to feel it, touch the bottom because it kind of had tracks on it, like a sled almost. And just to see the size of it, that was pretty cool,” she said. “We had already studied whales a couple of weeks ago, so it was fun to see one in person and say, ‘Oh, that’s what the baleen looks like in real life,’ and ‘Where is the blow hole?’ “

Biologists hoped to complete their work Tuesday, untether the carcass and “let the tide push it or move it,” Mahoney said. “Whatever it does or doesn’t do – we don’t know.”

According to NOAA, the whaling industry killed nearly 725,000 fin whales in the mid-1900’s in the Southern Hemisphere alone. Today, the major threat to the species comes from vessel strikes.

Other fin whales have washed ashore along the Western U.S. this year. In August, a  large fin whale washed ashore in Southern California and died before rescuers could get to the scene, CBS Los Angeles reported. Officials said the whale, which was not fully grown, was believed to be in poor health due to visible bumps on its skin and a thin build. 

In February,  a 46-foot-long whale was found washed up on an Oregon shore — emaciated, entangled and covered in what appears to be wounds from killer whales.

Just two blocks from the University of Georgia campus, in a downtown courtroom in Athens, Georgia, Jose Ibarra is on trial for the murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a former UGA student who transferred to the nursing program at Augusta University’s Athens campus.

In late February, Riley was attacked during her morning jog on a trail near the University of Georgia’s intramural fields. As the investigation and trial unfolded, members of the Athens community grappled with a shaken sense of security.

“Just because we’re on campus doesn’t mean, necessarily, that the bad parts of the world can’t get in,” said Allison Mawn, a fourth-year student. “She did everything right. She told friends where she was going, she went on a popular trail during the day. She had her tracking location on. She even managed to call for help, and still it wasn’t enough.”

The case was thrust into the national spotlight when authorities arrested Ibarra, an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant who entered the country two years ago, and charged him with murdering Riley. In the midst of the election cycle, her death quickly became a flashpoint in the immigration debate, with former President Donald Trump and his supporters raising it at rallies and President Biden responding to heckling about it in his State of the Union address.

“In an instant, all the eyes across the country are on us,” said Mawn. “Now you can’t say the name Laken Riley without thinking about undocumented immigrants and illegal immigration.”

Students have organized vigils and prayer groups, and participated in protests, rallies and runs in memory of Riley. A GoFundMe set up by her family amassed over $250,000 in donations that will go to the Laken Hope Foundation, an organization that will “promote safety awareness for women, aid and tuition assistance for nursing students, and children’s healthcare… all causes that Laken felt strongly about.”

For many students, Athens no longer feels like the safe haven they once thought it was. To ease fears, University of Georgia President Jere Morehead announced a $7.3 million campus safety initiative. The campus has been fortified by an expanded university police force, hundreds of additional lights and security cameras and multiple emergency call stations and license plate readers.

Over the past months, “there was an expectation that we would magnify those efforts,” said P. Daniel Silk, the University of Georgia’s associate vice president for public safety. “We want to be more safe and more secure tomorrow than we were yesterday.”

While the Athens community waits for justice to be delivered, students bustle around campus, walking under the newly installed street lights, passing by additional emergency call systems and easing into a heightened security presence. Classes may go on, but the campus and community are changed.

“Regardless of what the verdict is, unfortunately we still lost a student. We still lost a life and nothing’s gonna change that,” said Mawn. “Things are never going to be a hundred percent the same for any of us here.”

Nine Senate Democrats sent an urgent letter Wednesday imploring the nation’s top auto safety regulator to “accelerate the implementation” of several potentially lifesaving vehicle safety measures called for in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly referred to as the bipartisan infrastructure bill. 

Among the outstanding provisions was an order from Congress that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration draft a new standard for the strength of vehicle seats — a measure prompted by a long-running CBS News investigation.

“The agency must still finalize some of its proposed rules and has not yet issued rules for many provisions — rules that are already overdue or nearing their statutory deadline,” the senators wrote in the letter.

Sens. Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Ben Ray Lujan, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Dick Durbin, Jack Reed, Ron Wyden and Chris Van Hollen sent the letter to NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman asking for response by Dec 15. 

The NHTSA does not currently have an administrator to head the agency, a post that has been vacant for most of the last two administrations.

Since 2015, CBS News reports have brought to light longstanding concerns over seatback safety and exposed dire weaknesses within the federal standard, which was created in 1967. The probe found that front seats in vehicles were vulnerable to collapsing in crashes in which those vehicles had been rear-ended, even though the seat construction adhered to national requirements.

NHTSA was given two years to develop new safety standards for seat strength, primarily in an effort to protect children sitting in the back seats of vehicles. Fatal incidents in which front seats collapsed backward in rear-end accidents, and onto kids seated behind them, had already been on the rise for years. 

NHTSA missed the deadline, but in July, it announced its plans to potentially update that safety standard. While it sought public comments, the agency has not announced further action.

“It’s unacceptable that backseat passengers – especially children – are still at risk of being killed by a collapsing front seat during a crash,” Markey said in a statement. “After Senator Blumenthal and I passed our Modernizing Seatback Safety Act, and doggedly urged NHTSA to act, I was glad the agency finally issued its proposed rule updating seatback safety standards. But our work is not done yet, and NHTSA must quickly finalize this rule and save lives.”

Other outstanding safety provisions the senators are seeking status reports on include an annual recall completion list, automatic shutoff for vehicles with keyless ignition systems, setting minimum standards for crash avoidance systems, distracted driver reduction research, updates to hood and bumper standards, a study of existing reporting requirements for vehicle manufacturers regarding potential safety issues, requirements for new vehicles to be equipped with advanced impaired driving prevention technology and a requirement aimed at reducing the likelihood a child is left in a hot car by equipping new vehicles with a system to alert the driver to check rear seats.