{"id":28836,"date":"2025-07-22T14:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/28836\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T14:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:27:08","slug":"bay-area-whales-dying-in-record-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/28836\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area whales dying in record numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThat\u2019s the question that we\u2019re all asking,\u201d said Moe Flannery, an expert in marine mammal necropsies at the California Academy of Sciences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The increase in local whale traffic is surprising, as the numbers of northern Pacific gray whales are at historic lows. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of gray whales in the region fell by about 40%, an episode known as an \u201cunusual mortality event,\u201d and it is now at the lowest point since the 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experts attribute this to a climate-change-propelled decrease in \u201cquality prey\u201d \u2014 namely, shrimp-like crustaceans \u2014 in the whales\u2019 arctic hunting grounds, Flannery said. That lack of edible invertebrates could now be driving more whales into the bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Pierson, a field operations specialist who leads whale tours to the Farallon Islands for the Oceanic Society, explained that the whales feed only in summer. Those that didn\u2019t get enough to eat last summer may be \u201crunning out of gas\u201d on their return to the Arctic from Mexico, where they go to breed and give birth, and venturing into the bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might be seeing gray whales stopping off in the San Francisco Bay to forage on their way up to Alaska, which would be a new behavior,\u201d Flannery said, adding that the theory is unconfirmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But whales venturing in for a meal must contend with shipping vessels, ferries, and other large ships traversing the bay. Ship strikes accounted for nearly half of recorded deaths<\/a> of whales so far this year; for nearly all others, the cause of death was \u201cundetermined.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these whales come in here to feed, it\u2019s like they\u2019re trying to have dinner in the middle of a freeway,\u201d Pierson said.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to create safer waters for our mammalian brethren, experts will convene this week in Sausalito to \u201c[look] into potential gaps in research, strengthen scientific collaboration work, and bolster ongoing whale safety efforts,\u201d according to a Marine Mammal Center spokesperson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While no representatives of the San Francisco Bay Ferry or shipping industry will be present at the meetings, experts may brainstorm recommendations for altering ship routes. Flannery said there has been progress this year: more communication between vessels and the diversion of ferry traffic during certain weekends to avoid whale activity. But she added that it can come down to the discretion of the captain, and not everyone slows or changes course to protect whales.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wants to hit a whale,\u201d Flannery said, \u201cbut now that things are changing, we all have to make sure we also adapt and change our behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThat\u2019s the question that we\u2019re all asking,\u201d said Moe Flannery, an expert in marine mammal necropsies at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[7221,24513,79,201],"class_list":["post-28836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-nature","tag-san-francisco-bay","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}