This is estimated to be the 14th dead gray whale that has washed ashore this year, the Cascadia Research Collective told KGW.
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Another dead whale has been found ashore near Long Beach and Seaview, Cascadia Research Collective say.
The whale reportedly washed up Wednesday, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Cascadia Research Collective and Portland State University are planning on conducting a necropsy of the whale on Friday, the agency added.
The nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective told KGW that this is estimated to be the fourteenth dead gray whale that’s washed ashore along the Pacific Northwest coast this year, with a likely fifteenth whale that has not yet been confirmed.
This whale is a few miles south from the other whale found just south of Cranberry State Park, also in Washington state, earlier this week.
John Calambokidis, research biologist and founder of the Cascadia Research Collective, called the uptick in whale deaths “alarming,” saying that the record for whales discovered on the coast and within Puget Sound was set last year at 18.
Most of the whales that have been found this spring have been males, who likely died of starvation due to climate change, which has dramatically reduced the whales’ food supply in Alaska and the Arctic Circle.
KING’s Drew Mikkelsen contributed to the reporting of this story.
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