A baby gray whale that stunned Washington state residents after it swam 20 miles up a small river has been found dead, and a marine mammal research group official suspects that hunger may have driven the whale to new fishing grounds as the species’ numbers decline.
The whale was discovered Saturday near Raymond, Washington, in the Willapa River, which feeds the ocean at Willapa Bay. There are currently a number of gray whales in the Gulf during their 5,000-mile (8,000 km) spring migration from calving runs in Baja California, Mexico, north to feeding grounds in Alaska.
The biggest problem facing the population of gray whales in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean since 2019 is reduced food availability in the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas off the coast of Alaska, John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the Cascadia Research Group, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“Gray whales are facing a major crisis and their heart seems to be feeding on their prey in the Arctic,” he said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Agency has announced an unusual death of Eastern gray whales – i.e. those in the eastern Pacific – from late 2018 to late 2023. Included 690 Gray whale threads During that period, extending from Alaska To Mexico.
NOAA fisheries investigators concluded that the primary cause was “local ecosystem changes in Arctic and subarctic whale feeding grounds that have led to dietary changes, malnutrition, decreased birth rates, and increased mortality.”
Officials believe The population was boomingBut the latest census from 2025 instead showed a continued decline. The federal agency estimated there were about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest number since the 1970s.
“A lot of these gray whales look very emaciated, very skinny,” Calambokidis said.
Their northward migration is usually the most challenging period for gray whales, as it is the longest period they go without eating, forcing the animals to use up their food reserves.
“When this happens, you often see gray whales desperately searching for new areas to feed,” Calambokidis said. “This is the most likely context for this whale.”
Researchers will try to examine the whale, perhaps on Monday.
It entered the North Fork of the Willapa River on Wednesday, crossing a bay about 185 miles (298 kilometers) southwest of Seattle. Residents gathered on bridges along the river just to catch a glimpse of the massive mammal, and social media was flooded with photos and videos of it expelling air through its blowhole.
While the gray whale appeared thin, it was behaving normally and did not appear to have any injuries, the nonprofit Cascadia Research Group said in a Facebook post.
The organization was giving the whale time and space to leave the river on its own, but when researchers tried to find it on Friday, the animal traveled upriver into waters that were not navigable by boat, Calambokidis said.