Sad discoveries have been drifting through San Francisco Bay in recent weeks. As of this Tuesday, five dead whales have been spotted in these Northern California waters.
USA Today reported on the fifth whale sighting this week, citing Giancarlo Rulli of the Marine Mammal Center. According to the report, the female gray whale was spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard near the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, Calif. on Wednesday. In addition to this whale, three other gray whales and a rare minke whale have been found either dead or struggling in the bay recently.
After the minke whale was found with peeling skin, sunburn and breathing trouble, it was euthanized on April 8.
“Necropsies show that two of the three gray whales discovered before the latest deaths were in good condition, but one whale had six fractured vertebrae, likely due to being struck by a passing vessel,” USA Today reported. “The fourth dead gray whale was privately towed on April 22 to Angel Island State Park, where a necropsy will be performed, Rulli said.”
An April 4 press release from the Marine Mammal Center addressed the dangers posed to whales in the bay due to boat traffic.
“Our joint team is thankful to our partners at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for their invaluable support to help tow and position this whale so that we are able to investigate this animal’s death,” says Kathi George, director of Cetacean Conservation Biology at The Marine Mammal Center. “There continues to be a significant number of gray whale sightings in San Francisco Bay as this species continues their northern migration to their arctic feeding grounds. With the bay serving as a shared space for commerce and increasing whale activity, it’s vital that all boaters, from large commercial vessels to sailboats, be whale aware and if you see a blow, go slow.”
Rulli said that officials are also looking into other possible causes of the recent whale strandings that began on March 30. He said those causes could include malnutrition.
In March, gray whales begin migrating north from Mexico, where they breed and give birth. Eventually, they make their way into Alaska and parts of the Arctic in May. They avoided the busy San Francisco Bay prior to 2018, said USA Today’s report. Rulli also said that gray whales lost 40% of their pool from 2019 to 2023.
“While the number of gray whale strandings has surpassed last year’s totals in the Bay Area, they are in line with what we saw at the tail end of the mortality event in 2022 and 2023 at this point in the year,” Rulli said, according to USA Today.