SEASIDE, Oregon (CNN) -- Two people were arrested after a whale washed ashore of a northern Oregon coastal community and bystanders on the beach rushed into the water in a failed attempt to save it.

Up to 60 people, most of whom were attending a volleyball tournament, rushed into the ocean when the whale beached Sunday evening in Seaside and began trying to get the creature back into the water, according to Jason Hussa of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

The whale was thrashing around, Hussa said, but the rescuers were unable to get it off the beach and back into deeper water.

Hussa said that the bystanders "had the best of intentions, but it was far more dangerous for them to be around this whale."

Police managed to get everyone out of the water, but then one bystander, apparently frustrated by the failed attempts to save the whale, broke through a police line, authorities said.

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"One man was arrested by police after he went past a police rope that had been established to keep people out of the water," said Sgt. Jason Schermerhorn of the Seaside Police Department. "The man ran back in and was arrested by police."

In addition, a woman was arrested "for interfering with an officer on the shore after the man was arrested," Schermerhorn said.

Keith Chandler, general manager of the Seaside Aquarium, said the whale died between 7 and 7:30 p.m. local time.

He said a necropsy will be done and results sent to a lab for testing to determine the whale's cause of death.

"That whale should not have been there," Chandler said. "The fact that it was so close to the shore tells me there was something wrong with it."

Chandler defended the police's actions.

"The police were trying to save these people's lives," he said. "The people had no hope of saving this animal. The only thing they could have done was hurt themselves."

Baird's beaked whales are thought to be the largest of the beaked whales and live in the northern Pacific Ocean.