LOS ANGELES » The decaying carcass of a whale that washed ashore at San Onofre State Beach recently has attracted a steady stream of lookie-loos, but a California parks official warned residents today that they might want to avoid the area very soon.

Kevin Pearsall, a public safety superintendent for California state parks, suggested that the removal process might get a little ugly.

Initially, officials considered towing the whale out to sea, but decided against it when they realized it might just drift back onto the beach. On Wednesday, Pearsall said the cetacean’s remains would be removed by land — a process that would likely involve cutting it up and carting it away piece by piece.

“If that is what ends up being done to it, it’s going to be very messy,” Pearsall said. “It’s going to be probably upsetting to kids. We highly suggest, or ask, that people stay away once the removal process is in place, because you just don’t know what you’re going to see.”

Pearsall said his agency was in the final stages of securing a contract with a vendor who has experience removing large animals, and said work could begin as early as Thursday morning.

The whale, Pearsall believes, will ultimately end up in a landfill.

“It’s not the greatest thing, but it’s unfortunately where these large animals end up at some point, due to their size and lack of space for them,” he said.

The dead whale became an instant attraction after it beached itself Sunday at Lower Trestles, a popular surfing destination near the Orange County-San Diego County line.

The carcass has drawn crowds of selfie-snapping tourists, as well as the curious. Professional surfer Kelly Slater was one of those who turned up at the beach to get a look.

“I’m sure that #BeachedWhale oil should keep the crowds to a minimum coming into summer! Sketchy,” Slater wrote on Instagram.

Another surfer, Kalani Robb, shot a short video showing a small crowd of people looking at the whale.

“Guess I won’t be surfing lowers right now #deadwhale,” he wrote on Instagram.

Cynthia Stern told The Associated Press she drove 75 miles with a friend to see the whale.

“You should be paying homage to such creatures that are so intelligent and so wonderful,” she said in the interview. “You could start to feel the positive energy as you walked down the beach. Even though it’s a carcass, it’s profoundly positive — and anyone who went there is blessed.”

But it wasn’t as much of a blessed experience trying to determine how to remove the whale. One option was burying it, but because the beach is small and very rocky, “it wasn’t a feasible option to bury it where it lay,” Pearsall said.

An option to pull it out to sea, as has been done in the past, was also not possible, because of tide and wind circumstances and a concern that the whale could wash up again, he said.

“They’re so majestic and so sensitive to the public, yet they’re so large,” Pearsall said. “They do wash up on beaches from time to time, unfortunately, and you just kind of have to look at each one and approach it in the safest and environmentally conscious way.”

While the whale is large, Pearsall said it is not the largest that has washed up on a California beach. Other whales have included one over 50 feet and another one that was 48 feet.