Two dead whales wash ashore near each other on Oregon beach in 4 days, aquarium says
The body of a second whale washed ashore on an Oregon beach four days after the body of a severely injured endangered whale was also found, according to an aquarium.
The 12-foot long baby gray whale washed ashore on Jan. 18 up about 100 yards away from a 40-foot long dead sperm whale at Fort Stevens State Park, according to a Facebook post from Seaside Aquarium.
“Westerly winds and currents are responsible for these animals coming ashore,” the aquarium said.
Similar to the sperm whale, the gray whale “had been dead for a while before washing in,” according to the aquarium.
The gray whale, however, showed no signs of dying from “human interaction,” as with the fully-grown male sperm whale that died from a ship strike weeks prior to washing ashore on Jan. 14, the aquarium said.
The gray whale was “born on the southward migration and was either stillborn or died quickly,” Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, said in an email to McClatchy News.
NOAA will conduct a “necropsy later in the week, as long as the carcass remains accessible in the tides and weather,” to determine the cause of death, Milstein said.
Gray whales are “experiencing an Unusual Mortality Event” that has resulted in a “decline in the population,” according to Milstein.
“The calf count has been very low so they (scientists) are interested in its condition and any other information that may help understand what is affecting the survival of calves,” Milstein said.
Fort Stevens State Park is about 100 miles northwest of Portland.
This story was originally published January 19, 2023 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Two dead whales wash ashore near each other on Oregon beach in 4 days, aquarium says."
