A huge gray whale was found dead. Cascadia Research and the Washington Department for Fish and Wildlife conducted a necropsy and revealed the result.
Why Did the Huge Gray Whale in Fox Island Die?
A 41-foot male gray whale was found in the shallows of Fox Island in southern Puget Sound. It was moved to a remote site on April 3, and a necropsy was done a day later.
Research biologist John Calambokidis, from the Cascadia Research Collective, told Newsweek that the adult male gray whale died due to blunt-force trauma likely from a vessel strike. Additionally, its poor nutritional condition may have also contributed to it being in Puget Sound and being vulnerable to vessel strikes.
The whale was spotted in the shallow waters as early as March 27. It reportedly suffered from poor health and may have likely died sometime between then and when its discovery was on April 1.
Gray whales can grow up to 48 feet long and weigh up to 90,000 pounds. They are usually found in the shallow coastal waters of the North Pacific Ocean and make the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling 10,000 miles per round trip on average, exceeding 14,000 miles in some cases.
Gray Whale Stranding
Beaching or stranding occurs among healthy and injured marine animals driven ashore by prevailing winds. Sometimes a group of whales beaches themselves together in what is known as mass strandings, according to National Geographic.
According to NOAA Fisheries, gray whale strandings have occurred from Mexico through Alaska since Jan. 1, 2019, along the west coast of North America. An Unusual Mortality Event (UME) confirmed the stranding cases.
There were 48 strandings in Alaska in the said year, 34 in Washington, 6 in Oregon, and 34 in California. The total number dropped to 79 in 2020, 55 in 2021, and 47 in 2022. For 2023 there have been four cases of stranding recorded.
According to Calambokidis, there are typically six gray whale strandings in a normal year. Most beached whales examined are in poor health conditions.
On a portion of the whales, complete or partial necropsies were performed. Several of the whales have exhibited emaciation, according to preliminary data. More investigation is required because these results do not apply to all the whales analyzed.
As part of the UME investigation process, NOAA has put together an independent team of scientists to work with the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events to review the data gathered, sample stranded whales, think through potential causal links between the mortality event, and recent ocean and ecosystem perturbations, and decide the next steps for the investigation.
The most crucial thing one can do is report any dead, hurt, or stranded marine mammals immediately. One can say the sighting by calling the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network in California, Oregon, or Washington at 1-866-767-6114, the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network in Alaska 1-877-925-7773, or the British Columbia Marine Mammal Response Network in Canada at 1-800-465-4336.
The US Coast Guard can also be contacted on VHF Channel 16. They also advised against approaching or touching injured or dead marine mammals.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act provides federal protection for all marine mammals. Live, dead marine mammals may only be handled legally by local, state, and NOAA Fisheries personnel.
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