A gray whale that swam 20 miles up a Washington state river is found dead
The baby gray whale that stunned Washington state residents after swimming 20 miles down a small river has been found dead, and an official with a marine mammal research group suspects the whale may have been driven to new hunting grounds by starvation as the species’ population dwindled.
The whale was discovered Saturday in the Willapa River, which feeds into the ocean at Willapa Bay, near Raymond, Washington. A number of gray whales are currently in the bay during their 5,000-mile (8,000-kilometer) spring migration north from their birth grounds in Baja California, Mexico, to their feeding grounds in Alaska.
The biggest problem facing the gray whale population in the eastern Pacific Ocean since 2019 is reduced food availability in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas off the coast of Alaska, research biologist John Calambokidis of the Cascadia Research Collective told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“Gray whales are facing a major crisis, and the heart of that crisis appears to be feeding on their prey in the Arctic,” he said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries agency declared an unusual mortality event for the fish. eastern gray whales – that is, those in the eastern Pacific – from the end of 2018 to the end of 2023. It involved 690 people. gray whale stranding extending during this period Alaska To Mexico.
NOAA Fisheries researchers concluded that the first cause was “local ecosystem changes in the whales’ sub-Arctic and Arctic feeding areas that lead to changes in food, malnutrition, decreased birth rates, and increased mortality rates.”
Authorities believed the population was recoveringbut the latest count for 2025 instead showed a continued decline. The federal agency estimated there were about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest number since the 1970s.
“A lot of these gray whales look very skinny, very skinny,” Calambokidis said.
Their northward migration is often the most challenging period for gray whales; The longest period without eating forces animals to deplete their food reserves.
“When this happens, you often see gray whales in a more desperate search to find new areas to feed,” Calambokidis said. “That’s the most likely context for this whale.”
Researchers will likely try to examine the whale on Monday.
It entered the north fork of the Willapa River on Wednesday at an inlet about 185 miles (298 kilometers) southwest of Seattle. Locals gathered on riverside bridges to catch a glimpse of the massive mammal and flooded social media with photos and videos of it expelling air through its blowhole.
Although the gray whale appeared weak, it was acting normally and did not appear to have any injuries, the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective said in a Facebook post.
Calambokidis said the organization gave the whale time and space to leave the river on its own, but when researchers tried to find it Friday, the animal had moved upriver into waters inaccessible by boat.
