A 40-foot-long whale was found dead in Alameda on Sunday. The adult female gray whale washed ashore early morning and marked yet another grim toll in the string of cetacean deaths along the Bay Area coast. This incident is the first reported in the San Francisco Bay Area this year.
Before getting stuck in a sandbar near Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach, the whale had been sighted afloat the previous evening. It was lodged in a sandbar before breaking free and floating with the tide, NBC Bay Area detailed. Attempts are presently underway by officials, including local agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard, to relocate the carcass to Angel Island State Park for a necropsy.
The cause of death is still a mystery, with possibilities ranging from ship strikes to malnutrition, a firsthand look aiming to collect more definitive answers through an examination of the whale's tissues. "The whale was first observed floating off Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach on Saturday evening before its carcass became lodged in a sandbar offshore; it is now free-floating with the tide," Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center, told SFGATE. He further stressed the importance of a detailed examination as it could provide insights into the broader issues affecting these majestic sea creatures.
Local reactions varied, with one resident, Michael Devine, expressing a mix of sadness and concern upon discovering the whale during a morning walk. "I enjoy watching the gray whale migration on the ocean coast," he said in a statement obtained by SFGATE. "I was surprised to hear about this here. I hope this is a natural death and not due to a vessel strike." Meanwhile, social media posts like the one by Tobin Fricke on Facebook added a touch of dark humor, suggesting the whale would "be loaded up with dynamite, as per tradition."
Conservationists are uneasy as this death adds to the disturbing trend observed in recent years. An unusual mortality event from 2019 to 2023 has led to nearly 700 gray whales washing ashore along the West Coast, with seven cases in the Bay Area just last year. The string of incidents has prompted calls for vigilance among boaters, who are urged to keep their distance from whales and report any sightings to the Marine Mammal Center. Dead whale sightings, meanwhile, should be reported to the Academy of Sciences' stranding hotline.
