The Marine Mammal Center announced Thursday that the gray whale who spent a record 75+ days in the San Francisco Bay has died. The whale was found washed up at Point Reyes National Seashore with “injuries consistent with two separate vessel strikes.” A second gray whale carcass was found beached nearby, although its cause of death is still undetermined.
The record-setting whale abounded in news headlines in late April after being spotted in the SF Bay for nearly 70 days, beating the previous record of 46 days.
Whereas most whales have historically been spotted outside of the bay along the coast, higher ocean temps and whale populations have driven more whales into the SF Bay itself, which can be dangerous for them due to the danger of ship strikes. Scientists were especially concerned about this gray sticking around for so long.
“To respond to two known gray whales on consecutive days, including one that our team has been actively monitoring for months in San Francisco Bay, is challenging and concerning to say the least,” said Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Director of Pathology at The Marine Mammal Center. “As sentinels for ocean health, gray whales face several human-caused threats including vessel strikes.”
Over 15,000 gray whales migrate along the California coast between January and April. They make one of the longest migrations of any mammal, traveling up to 14,000 miles round-trip from their feeding grounds in the Arctic to the warm lagoons in Mexico.
After nearly going extinct, the North Pacific gray whale population recovered significantly for a time and was considered a grand conservation success. However in 2019 gray whales began washing up on shore in startlingly high numbers, causing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare an Unusual Mortality Event which is ongoing.
The Marine Mammal Center has a 24-hour hotline (415-289-7325) where you can report whale sightings in the SF Bay so that they may monitor the animal and keep ships informed of its whereabouts in order to avoid ship strikes.