Gray whale washes up dead on California beach
A dead gray whale was found rolling in the surf off Alameda South Shore Beach, according to the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences.
The whale marks the fourth gray whale to wash up in San Francisco Bay this year. It comes less than two weeks after four whales washed up in the San Francisco Bay in a week-and-a-half span, an occurrence that scientists deemed unusual.
The gray whale drifted overnight from the surf near Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach, where it was spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard, to a location off Alameda, said Giancarlo Rulli, the associate director of public relations for the Marine Mammal Center.
The California Academy of Sciences and East Bay Regional Parks arranged for the whale to be towed to Angel Island State Park by a private towing service so that a necropsy can be conducted, according to a statement from the Marine Mammal Center and California Academy of Sciences. The centers are reviewing logistics to conduct a necropsy later this week in an attempt to learn the whale's cause of death.
Scientists suspect that this gray whale is the same that was first spotted floating near the rock wall at the USS Hornet Museum on Thursday morning, but they have yet to get confirmation, the centers said. The centers confirmed that the whale was no longer floating near the museum Monday.
The Marine Mammal Center sent a research vessel to take blubber and skin samples of the whale in Alameda on Friday morning, the centers said. Scientists confirmed that that whale was an adult female.
"We urge beachgoers prior to the whale being towed to give this animal space while in the surf for their own safety," the Marine Mammal Center said in a statement.
A juvenile minke whale also beached itself near Emeryville earlier in April and was euthanized due to abnormal behavior.
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