Experts respond to a dead gray whale in the Marin Headlands as sightings of the species increase in San Francisco

The Marine Mammal Center responds to a dead gray whale in the Marin Headlands as sightings of the species increase in San Francisco

Experts at The Marine Mammal Center and their partners at the California Academy of Sciences performed a necropsy, or animal autopsy, on a gray whale on Monday morning, March 31, at Black Sands Beach in Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Although the initial necropsy findings were inconclusive, the response comes as the Center’s Cetacean Conservation Biology Team reported more than a half dozen gray whale sightings in a single day in San Francisco Bay last week. Through active cetacean monitoring efforts and by investigating deaths like this, the Center and partners can identify and respond to rapidly changing environmental trends as well as human impacts on marine mammal populations.

The Center was first notified by National Park Service staff of a dead gray whale floating along the northwest side of Alcatraz Island on Saturday morning, March 29. The Center’s Cetacean and Pathology Team, in conjunction with our partners at the California Academy of Sciences, initially responded to the whale Saturday afternoon via a research boat. The team was able to collect a skin and blubber sample, take photo identification imagery, and successfully tie a buoy to the whale’s right pectoral flipper to allow for more prominent visibility with shifting tides and in advance of poor weather conditions.

After floating out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge late in the day Saturday, the Center’s team confirmed on Sunday, March 30, that the same individual whale had washed ashore at Black Sands Beach in Golden Gate National Recreation Area (Marin Headlands).

A team of a half dozen scientists from the Center and the California Academy of Sciences responded to the 36-foot whale on Monday to conduct a necropsy (animal autopsy) at low tide with permission from the National Park Service. Experts were able to identify the whale as a female and noted that the whale was in emaciated body condition. No initial evidence of blunt force trauma that would indicate a suspected vessel strike while the whale was alive was found. It’s suspected but not confirmed that it’s likely a subadult animal in terms of age class. 

For more information or to set up an interview on this topic, please contact us at media@tmmc.org.

For breaking news about our whale responses as well as additional press materials, bookmark MarineMammalCenter.org/whale-stranding.

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