Ninth whale dies in Bay Area this year as sightings spike

Yahoo

22-05-2025

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A second gray whale that died this year from a suspected vessel strike was found in the San Francisco Bay, according to The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC). It is the ninth individual dead whale that wildlife officials have responded to in the Bay Area in 2025.
Staff at the Phillips 66 San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo reported the dead gray whale on May 12 to the California Academy of Sciences, TMMC said. An expert with the academy collected measurements and tissue samples on the following day. It was learned that the 39-foot gray whale was an adult female.
Experts noted that the whale had two large straight cuts through the right side of the head and jaw 'consistent with propeller wounds,' according to TMMC. Samples will undergo further analysis to confirm the findings.
The whale, which had been initially found underneath a pier, was dislodged during high tide on May 16 and later surfaced on a mudflat at Mare Island in Vallejo.
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In early April, a subadult male gray whale was found just offshore of Fort Point Rock Beach in San Francisco with 'blunt force trauma consistent with vessel strike,' wildlife experts said. That whale, which was photo identified as a well-known individual called 'Denali,' suffered 'six fractured spinal vertebrae and had associated hemorrhage in the area,' TMMC said.
In total, experts have responded to eight dead gray whales and one minke whale so far this year. The minke whale was euthanized after repeatedly stranding itself in the mud during low tides off Emeryville. Comparatively, by this time last year, The Marine Mammal Center had only responded to one dead gray whale and one dead humpback whale in the Bay Area.
Six of the gray whales found dead this year have an undetermined cause of death.
In all of 2024, there were only four individual gray whales sighted in the San Francisco Bay, according to TMMC. This year, however, experts with the center's Cetacean Conservation Biology Team have photo-identified 30 individual gray whales swimming in the bay.
'The reason or potential reasons behind the spike in sightings this year are still being investigated by researchers,' TMMC told KRON4.
The public is urged to report whale sightings in the Bay Area through the WhaleAlert app or through The Marine Mammal Center's website.
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