On Saturday night, a gray whale washed ashore on a beach in Alameda, becoming the first reported whale death in the San Francisco Bay Area this year. The whale was initially seen floating off the coast of Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach, after which it became dislodged and floated freely with the tide.
The whale is an adult female grey whale, measuring about 40 feet long. Cal Academy was able to collect blubber samples and measurements, observing it from a nearby boat. Notably, this is not the same whale that was previously caught in a gill net off the coast of San Francisco two weeks ago.
The whale will be transported to Angel Island State Park for a necropsy to determine the cause of death, scheduled for Monday. The U.S. Coast Guard is aware of the situation but is not involved in the towing operation.
In 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an Unusual Mortality Event for gray whales, attributing it to an unusually high number of dead whales found along their migration range. However, this Unusual Mortality Event has since concluded.
Research from both the Marine Mammal Center and Cal Academy has identified malnutrition, vessel strike trauma, and entanglement as the leading causes of death for gray whales in recent years. Other potential factors include infectious diseases, predation, human interactions, and harmful algae blooms.
