Necropsy of dead whale in SF Bay confirms ship strike
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Two dead whales have been found in the San Francisco Bay over the past week. The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) on Tuesday provided an update after necropsies were performed on the gray whale carcasses, confirming one death was caused by a vessel strike.
One dead adult male gray whale was found floating east of Angel Island on Wednesday before being towed to land the following day for further examination. On Friday, scientists with TMMC and the California Academy of Sciences performed a necropsy, or animal autopsy.
This gray whale 'was found to be in good body condition with a full stomach,' wildlife officials said, which indicated that it had eaten recently. The Angel Island whale did not show 'initial evidence of blunt force trauma consistent with vessel strike.'
Scientists plan to reexamine the carcass to learn more about what caused the whale's death.
Another dead gray whale, a subadult male that was photo identified to be a well-known individual called 'Denali,' was found Friday caught in the rocks just offshore of Fort Point Rock Beach in San Francisco. Officials noted that Denali was also a 'healthy individual.'
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'Experts confirmed the whale sustained six fractured spinal vertebrae and had associated hemorrhage in the area,' TMMC said. Wildlife officials said that the fatal injuries are indicative of a vessel strike.
Denali, officials said, was known among local whale watchers 'due to a large white spot in the shape of Alaska on its left side.' The whale was first sighted in the San Francisco Bay on March 28.
On March 30, the first dead whale carcass to wash ashore in the Bay Area this year was found at Black Sands Beach in the Marin Headlands. A necropsy of this female gray whale revealed it was underweight, though a cause of death was not immediately determined.
The Marine Mammal Center said that ship strikes are a leading cause of death for large whales on the California coast. Anyone who sees a whale in the San Francisco Bay Area is asked to report their sighting using the free Whale Alert app.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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