Story at a glance
- Four gray whales were found dead along San Francisco Bay area beaches between April 1-8.
- Researchers conducted animal necropsies and found significant bruising and hemorrhaging consistent with a ship strike.
- Scientists said it was the most gray whale deaths they have investigated in such a short amount of time since 2019.
Four dead gray whales have been found along San Francisco Bay area beaches in just the span of eight days, according to researchers from the Marine Mammal Center.
Scientists with the world’s largest marine mammal hospital said an adult female gray whale and a subadult male gray whale were found dead at Angel Island State Park April 1 and April 8, respectively. Their cause of death is under investigation.
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Meanwhile, an adult female gray whale was found on Fitzgerald Marine Reserve April 3 and another on Muir Beach April 8. Researchers said they suspect both animals died from ship strikes.
Researchers conducted animal necropsies and found significant bruising and hemorrhaging to the muscles around the animals’ jaws and necks consistent with blunt force trauma from a collision with a ship. The nonprofit’s experts were joined by biologists from the California Academy of Sciences to carry out necropsies.
“It’s alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species,” Pádraig Duignan, director of pathology at the Marine Mammal Center, said in a news release.
Researchers said it was the most gray whale deaths they have investigated in such a short amount of time since 2019.
“Our team hasn’t responded to this number of dead gray whales in such a short span since 2019 when we performed a startling 13 necropsies in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Duignan said.
The Marine Mammal Center notes that malnutrition, entanglement and trauma from collisions with ships have become the most common causes of death for the species its research team has observed in recent years.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, elevated gray whale strandings have taken place along the west coast of North America since 2019, prompting the agency to declare it an Unusual Mortality Event. A total of 122 gray whale strandings occurred from Alaska through Mexico in 2019 and 79 in 2020. At least eight have been recorded so far this year.
The gray whale population in the eastern Pacific was once listed as endangered but successfully recovered and was delisted in 1994, while western Pacific populations remain low and are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
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