A dead gray whale was reported near Alcatraz Island this week, the eighth such death this season in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the Marine Mammal Center.
The whale, described as small and looking like it died recently, was seen Monday morning floating against the rocky shoreline of the island after National Park Service staff alerted marine researchers.
Crews quickly moved to try to secure it. In coordination with the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dispatched a vessel to tow the carcass to a mooring buoy east of Treasure Island.
But by the time the boat arrived, the whale was gone.
Researchers believe shifting tides likely carried the carcass away. As of early Tuesday afternoon, there had been no confirmed resightings.
The Marine Mammal Center will perform a necropsy to determine how the whale died if it resurfaces and is accessible to crews. Many whales that die in the bay are never recovered, the agency said, making it harder to understand what’s killing them.
The first sighting of a gray whale in the San Francisco Bay this year was on January 21, 2026, according to the Marine Mammal Center. (Darrin Allen/NOAA)
But the latest death comes amid a troubling pattern. More gray whales are entering San Francisco Bay – and more are dying there.
At least four to five gray whales have been spotted in the bay on a typical day recently, according to the Marine Mammal Center.
Research published this month found that at least 18% of gray whales observed entering the bay since 2018 were later found dead. Scientists say the real toll is likely higher because many carcasses sink or drift out to sea.
Gray whales don’t typically linger in the bay during the season, which marks their roughly 12,000-mile migration between Arctic feeding grounds and breeding areas off Mexico. But as ocean conditions change and food becomes harder to find, researchers believe some whales are making risky detours into the bay to feed.
That shift brings them into one of the busiest shipping corridors on the West Coast, where vessel strikes are a leading cause of death.
So far this season, seven of the eight dead gray whales in the Bay Area were first reported inside the bay, according to the Marine Mammal Center.
This article originally published at Dead gray whale near Alcatraz is 8th this season as San Francisco Bay deaths rise.