A normal year for us, we have maybe between one and three [dead] gray whales in this season,” said Pádraig Duignan, chief research pathologist at the Marine Mammal Center. The latest whale, a female discovered May 6 at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, had probably been killed by a passing boat. And biologists have observed a disturbing trend of malnourished gray whales up and down the coast this year, Duignan said. In Washington state, 13 dead gray whales have washed up on state beaches since April, KOMO News reported Tuesday. Gray whales migrate south for the winter to have calves in Baja California, Mexico, before heading back up to Alaska along the coast in the spring.

Source: Washington Post May 07, 2019 21:08 UTC