The young Mind Whale had been spotted swimming in San Francisco Bay for almost a week by the time he was on the beach on the Emeryville coast on April 8th. The scientist thought she was healthy, but after testing she determined that she was acting abnormally and had to be euthanized due to the illness.
It was the death of the fourth whale in San Francisco Bay in a week and a half. The other three are grey whales, the first of which was washed away at Black Sands Beach, Cape Marine on March 30th. The cause of death remains unknown.
On April 2nd, a male, deceased adult, grey whale was found floating east of Angel Island. The cause of death is also unknown, according to the Marine Mammal Center. The site then washed at Fort Point Rock Beach near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, which was then washed at Fort Point Rock Beach near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and scientists determined it was likely that it had died due to the ship’s strike, according to the Mammal Center.
To sum up, death raised the ghosts of past “abnormal death events” and whales died at a higher number than normal.
“This is unusual,” said Kathi George, director of Cetacean Conservation Biology at the Marine Mammal Centre in Sosarito. “It came back a few years ago when a large number of strands happened at the same time.”
While so many whale beaches in such short spans are extraordinary, the number of whales that died around the bay that year remains along typical levels, scientists say.
“This is the normal time for gray whales to travel north from Mexico to Alaska, so it’s not uncommon to have gray whales in and around San Francisco Bay every April and May.” “They look high because they are concentrated in the short term, but the deaths and marginalized numbers are no different from those in recent years.”
Whales can die for “a number of reasons” — from illness to malnutrition to ship attacks, George said.
“It’s a coincidence that everything happened in a week and a half, but there are now many whales. Some of the physical condition they are in when they arrive in the bay can be more susceptible to human shocks if they’re not healthy,” she said.
Scientists began watching whales entering the San Francisco Bay around 2016 when they completed their annual migration between Mexico and subpolar. Whales do not feed while they are in Mexican breeding grounds, and after many energy mating, nursing babies and giving birth, they face a long journey back north to the feeding ground, she added.
Because of this energy consumption, scientists have seen grey whales attempt to feed in new locations, including San Francisco Bay, George said. The increase in appearance in the bay can also be potentially explained as it seeks a response to whales seeking a place to rest before continuing their movement, as well as climate change, warming ocean temperatures, and prey availability.
The Marine Mammal Center has tracked at least 18 whales swimming in the bay this year, and has reported sightings of grey whales almost daily since mid-March, George said. Most whale sightings have been reported east and east of Angel Island, said Giancarlo Ruri, associate director of spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center.
Between 2019 and 2023, gray whales were dying in far more numbers due to the unusual death event declared by the National Marine and Atmospheric Administrative Fisheries. The grey whales have lost more than 40% of the population in four years, Rulli said. During this time, the US had 347 gray whale chains, according to NOAA.
“These whales essentially left the Arctic Circle in half a tank,” Ruri said. “The food sources that were usually used to highly nutritious diets for this massive 10,000-12,000 miles of travel were far away due to climate change. As a result, these whales were left to collect problems with less nutritious food.”
Flannery said 34 dead grey whales, the first year of the rare mortality event, were washed away on the California coast, between January and April 2019 and between January and April 2019. Seven people have this year.
George said it is “still debate” whether recent deaths could be the start of an unusual death event, adding that data collected from these strands will help scientists understand “a complete picture of what is going on.”
“We’re not there yet,” she said, adding that scientists must look at their range of travel in a comprehensive way.
George said the whales will continue to move north and will continue to appear in the bay until mid-May.
Flannery added that anyone using water needs to be “more aware of the animals that share their environment.”
