6 gray whales found dead in a week in San Francisco Bay
Six gray whales were found dead in the wider San Francisco Bay Area in the last seven days. Photo by Marjorie Cox/The Marine Mammal Center/ Release
May 30 (UPI) -- Six gray whales have been found dead in the wider San Francisco Bay Area in the last seven days, raising the total number of dead whales in the region to 15 for the year.
According to a joint Wednesday statement from the California Academy of Sciences and The Marine Mammal Center, the most recent gray whale was found on Wednesday. The carcass was found near Alamere Falls at Point Reyes National Seashore, they said.
Two whales were discovered on Monday, one near Alcatraz and the other near Point Bonita. A whale was discovered near Berkeley on Saturday, one near Fisherman's Bay on May 22 and one near Bolinas on May 21.
Of the six whales, only the one found near Bolinas -- a yearling -- received a partial necropsy, the results of which were inconclusive, the organizations said.
For the year, there have been 14 gray whales and one minke whale found dead in the San Francisco Bay Area. The organizations said suspected or probable vessel strikes appear to be the cause of death for three of the gray whales.
"The Academy and partners at the Center have not responded to this many dead gray whales since the height of the Unusual Mortality Event in 2019," the statement said.
The UME saw hundreds of gray whales become stranded along the west coat of North America between Dec. 17, 2018, to Nov. 9, 2023. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported a total 690 whales died during the UME in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The centers said they had responded to 14 stranded whales in 2019 and 15 in 2021.
The increase in deaths comes amid what the organizations described as "an unusually high number" of whale sightings this year in the San Francisco Bay Area.
They said 33 individual gray whales have been confirmed in the bay area via photo identification this year, which is up from six gray whales sighted in the bay for all of last year.
"The reason or potential reasons behind the massive spike in sightings this year are still being investigated by researchers," it said.
"It is expected that gray whales will be in the bay for another one to two weeks before continuing their annual northern migration to Arctic feeding grounds."
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