{"id":626146,"date":"2026-05-06T04:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626146\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T04:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:14:11","slug":"noaa-spots-first-gray-whale-mother-and-calf-migrating-north-off-washington-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626146\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA spots first gray whale mother and calf migrating north off Washington coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SEATTLE \u2014 Signs of improvement may be emerging for gray whales migrating north along the West Coast, after recent weeks that included reports of thin and sometimes emaciated animals offshore and malnourished whales stranding along the Washington Coast.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, a NOAA Fisheries survey team spotted the first gray whale mother and calf reported swimming north along the northern Washington Coast and captured video of the pair. The mother appeared to be in fair shape, and the calf looked \u201cespecially plump, happy, and energetic,\u201d according to the notes.<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO | <a href=\"https:\/\/komonews.com\/news\/local\/juvenile-gray-whale-seen-in-north-fork-of-willapa-river-researchers-say\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Whale found dead after second sighting in a week on Willapa River, researchers say<\/a><\/p>\n<p>NOAA\u2019s Southwest Fisheries Science Center is counting the number of mothers with calves migrating north this spring, with results expected this summer.<\/p>\n<p>Biologists with NOAA\u2019s Alaska Fisheries Science Center Marine Mammal Laboratory, observing migrating whales from Willapa Bay to the northern tip of Washington, also reported that the gray whale migration may have slowed. They said they saw no actively migrating whales other than the mother and calf.<\/p>\n<p>The team did observe about 20 feeding gray whales, describing them as active and in better condition than whales seen offshore in earlier weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Gray whales feed by sifting mouthfuls of bottom sediments for crustaceans and invertebrates, leaving clouds of sediment in the water behind them as they eat.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers plan to use photo identification to compare the whales\u2019 unique markings to determine whether the animals are stopping to feed as they pass through on the way to the Arctic or are part of the Pacific Coast Feeding group, known to spend summers on the Northwest Coast.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>JOIN THE CONVERSATION (2)<\/p>\n<p>More information on whales and NOAA Fisheries can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 Signs of improvement may be emerging for gray whales migrating north along the West Coast, after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-626146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626146","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=626146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}