HONOLULU -- A beached killer whale was euthanized in Kauai Wednesday.

The Orca was discovered in bad shape at about 11 p.m. at Brennecke's Beach, which was still closed Wednesday night.

Witnesses said they tried to push the whale back into the water but it kept washing back onto the beach.

Its battered body lay helpless on the Kauai shoreline. The 18-foot juvenile female showed obvious signs of pain.

"She was making efforts to stay on the beach she was not wanting to go out she was actually turning up towards the beach making distress calls," said Mimi Olry, DLNR.

The animal came on shore late Tuesday night. By morning, huge crowds gathered and emergency responders and federal wildlife officials were on scene as Coast Guard secured the area offshore.

"I have been involved with many strandings over my 20 years working with marine mammals, but this is my first live stranded killer whale that I've worked with," said David Schofield with NOAA.

Sharks were spotted in the early morning and the animal did suffer from fresh cookie cutter shark wounds. Officials said they suspect the animal was not well for a longtime.

"It was very obvious that the animal was in very, very poor condition. The fact that you could see its ribs, the fact that you could see a defined neck and that you could see a pelvic region showed that the animal was very, very emaciated," Schofield said.

Sedatives were administered to the mammal before it was euthanized. NOAA experts said they felt it wouldn't be fair to return the animal to the ocean.

"Trying to push that animal out to sea is like throwing a drowning man a glass of water, it's just not the right thing to do," Schofield said.

Large machinery pulled the whale up the beach where it was lifted onto a flatbed. It was difficult, spectators said, to watch.

"It's very hard when you don't see them healthy and doing well so that was definitely sad and upsetting," spectator Kristen Wenaas said.

NOAA said there were no reports of Navy sonar at the time, but if there was sonar damage it may show up in the necropsy.