Very early Sunday morning a dead gray whale was reported floating in the east channel of the Duwamish River, located in Seattle’s Elliott Bay. Near Terminal 30 and slowly drifting north towards the open waters of the bay, the carcass ended up at the Coast Guard dock. Members of NOAA’s West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network began the complicated process of coordinating a response so that the animal could be necropsied, in hopes of determining cause of death. Because of the location in the shipping channel, there was concern the gray might be a ship strike victim, perhaps brought in on the bow of a container vessel. In January of 2015, a healthy female gray was killed by a ship propeller and found dead underneath the state ferry dock. Sno-King MMR’s Rachel Mayer requested photos from the Coast Guard to identify species and evaluate the state of decay.

When it was determined not possible to perform the necropsy on nearby Port of Seattle property, WA Department of Fish and Wildlife Enforcement offered to tow the 39 foot animal to another location. Numerous phone calls later, a suitable site was found, quite some distance away.

The Coast Guard secured the whale overnight and it was towed on Monday to Whidbey Island for examination and natural decomposition on the beach. A scientific team consisting of Cascadia Research, WA Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Mammal Investigations, SR3 and World Vets examined the animal late in the day, when the tide receded to allow access to the carcass. The whale was in poor body condition and thin, with only a small amount of woody debris and no food in the stomach.

Cascadia reports that gray whales are facing significant challenges finding food in 2018 and 2019. This is the 7th stranded gray whale in Washington State already this year. Researchers with the organization will compare markings on this adult male to ID photos in their gray whale database to establish if this is a known whale in their long-term study.

Read the post here by Cascadia’s Jessie Huggins, with additional photos and information about the whale.

Tags: gray whale