Fifth whale washes up lifeless in San Francisco Bay in lower than a month
A dead whale was discovered on a beach near Fort Funston on Friday, the fifth dead whale to be found near San Francisco Bay in less than a month.
April is the beginning of the gray whale’s north migration. Hence, it is not uncommon to find dead whales on the shores of the bay. However, after four were found within nine days a few weeks ago, experts began to worry.
“It’s about,” said Giancarlo Rulli from the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. “The fact that we responded to four gray whales dead … is worrying.”
A video of the fifth dead whale was posted on Twitter:
A dead whale was just washed up on the beach at Fort Funston, San Francisco. Pic.twitter.com/imb7czp8EF
– ⚡️ Andrew So⚡️ (@AndrewDixonSo) April 24, 2021
The first dead whale found was a 41-foot adult female gray whale in Crissy Field on March 31. This animal was dragged to Angel Island for an autopsy. The cause of death was unclear – pathologists from the Marine Mammal Center determined the whale was in good condition, no diseases were found, and in fact, due to recent feeding, the whale had a full stomach, which excluded starvation or malnutrition.
The second, another adult female, was found on April 3 at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach. “We suspect the cause of this animal’s death was a ship strike,” said Rulli. “Our plan is to come back to this whale at some point and take more samples.”
A third dead gray whale was found in Berkeley Marina on April 7th after moving around the bay during changing tides. This animal was also towed to Angel Island and inspected near the remains of the first animal.
The fourth dead gray whale was discovered at Muir Beach the next morning, April 8th.
At least 13 dead whales washed ashore in the Bay Area in 2019, and scientists said they feared this was because the animals were starving and unable to complete their annual migration from Mexico to Alaska. Biologists have observed gray whales in poor body condition during their annual migration since 2019 when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event”.
Malnutrition, entanglement in fishing gear, and trauma from ship attacks were the leading causes of death identified by the center’s research team in recent years.
An autopsy of the whale found at Muir Beach revealed significant bruising and bleeding from the muscles around the whale’s jaw and cervical vertebrae, consistent with blunt force trauma from a ship strike. However, experts found that the whale was in good body condition due to the layer of fat and internal fat content, the center said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
