4 gray whales wash up dead in 9 days in San Francisco Bay Area
Four gray whales were found dead in the San Francisco Bay Area in nine days, beginning March 31.
One of the whales was hit by a ship, the Associated Press reported. Causes of death for the other three have not yet been determined.
A 41-foot adult female washed up on Crissy Field on March 31, and a second female was found April 2 on Moss Beach, according to the AP. A third whale was discovered April 7 at Berkeley Marina and a fourth was spotted April 8 on Muir Beach.
The final whale was the one hit by a ship, the AP reported.
Gray whales are not an endangered species, but their population has tanked in recent years. There were about 27,000 gray whales alive in 2016, but the population has steadily declined since.
Scientists say the whales’ feeding grounds in the Arctic have been hurt by climate change, contributing to the uptick in whale deaths. They also blame fast-moving ships and fishing nets.
“This many dead whales in a week is shocking, especially because these animals are the tip of the iceberg,” Kristen Monsell, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Oceans program, told the AP.
Researchers suspect many dead gray whales go unnoticed because they sink the ocean floor.